CENTRAL  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 


A  HISTORY 


OF 


THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE 


ITS  FRIENDS  AND  ITS  FOES 


BY  ELI  THAYER 

INTRODUCTION  BY 

REV.  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  D.D. 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1889 


Copyright,  1889,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 


All  rights  reserved. 


CHARLES  ROBINSON 

THE  LEADER  OF  THE  FREE  STATE  PARTY  IN  THE  KANSAS 

TERRITORIAL  CONFLICT,  AND  THE  EFFICIENT 

WAR-GOVERNOR  OF  THE  STATE 

ALSO 

TO  ALL  MY  OTHER  COMRADES  AND  HELPERS  IN  THE 

GREAT  CRUSADE  WHO  STILL  SURVIVE,  AND 

TO  THE  HONORED  MEMORY  OF  THOSE 

WHO  HAVE  DEPARTED 


PREFACE. 


THE  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  show  by  what 
agency  Kansas  was  made  a  free  State,  and  how 
this  result  has  affected  our  national  life. 

This  triumph  of  the  North  was  regarded  by 
slave-holders  as  ample  proof  that  there  could  never 
be  another  slave  State  in  the  Union.  Hence  came 
the  attempt  to  secede,  the  Civil  War,  and  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  as  "a  military  neces- 
sity." Hence  came  also  an  enduring  national  uni- 
ty having  no  conflicting  sectional  interests. 

The  great  Kansas  struggle  was  therefore  the 
pivot  on  which  this  nation  turned  to  a  nobler  de- 
velopment and  to  a  higher  and  happier  condition 
of  all  its  people.  The  consequences  of  this  triumph 
of  freedom  are  becoming  more  and  more  apparent 
with  each  succeeding  year. 

A  period  longer  than  is  allowed  for  one  genera- 
tion of  men  has  passed  since  this  contest  began — 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  gone  since  it 
was  ended.  It  may  therefore  be  demanded  why 
there  has  been  so  long  delay  in  making  public  rec- 
ord of  the  methods  which  have  brought  us  such 
beneficent  results. 

The  Civil  War  engrossed  the  attention  of  all  the 
people  for  nearly  five  years.  Since  the  war  the 


vi  PREFACE. 

various  actors  in  it  have  been  constantly  putting 
their  own  achievements  in  writing  for  the  public 
use.  The  present,  therefore,  is  the  first  time  when 
the  great  cause  of  the  wonderful  political  changes 
of  the  last  thirty  years,  and  the  powerful  agency 
which  has  brought  us  to  our  present  high  position, 
could  be  wisely  presented  for  public  consideration. 

There  has  never  been  any  danger  that  false  con- 
clusions about  either  the  agency  or  its  methods 
could  secure  a  permanent  place  in  history.  The 
contemporaneous  records  of  this  great  work  are  in 
every  city  and  State  of  the  Union.  They  abound 
in  all  the  Congressional  records  of  the  time,  in  the 
messages  of  Presidents,  in  the  reports  of  committees 
of  Congress,  in  many  histories,  and  in  the  files  of 
innumerable  newspapers,  magazines,  and  periodicals 
of  various  kinds.  So,  whatever  ephemeral  indorse- 
ment any  false  claims  might  be  able  to  secure  the 
careful  study  of  future  historians  would  be  certain 
to  expose,  while  it  would  establish,  vindicate,  and 
fortify  the  truth.  Justice,  though  slow,  would  in 
this  case  be  sure. 

The  records  of  geology,  written  upon  the  rocks 
hidden  deep  in  the  earth,  have  established,  as  facts 
disputed  by  none,  the  early  history  of  men,  of  ani- 
mals, and  of  vegetation  to  have  been  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  the  ideas  prevalent  a  few  centuries  ago. 

So  this  present  writing  might  be  still  further 
postponed,  or  even  abandoned,  without  any  danger 
of  the  truths  herein  presented  being  lost  in  perpet- 
ual oblivion.  It  will,  however,  save  labor  to  the 
historian  of  the  future,  and  much  perplexity  to  the 


PREFACE.  vii 

present  generation,  to  have  at  hand  such  a  summary 
of  facts  as  is  here  recorded.  Another  great  advan- 
tage of  deferring  this  work  no  longer  is  the  fact 
that  thousands  of  men  are  now  living  who  were 
earnest,  interested,  and  intelligent  spectators  of 
these  events,  or  determined  and  heroic  actors  in 
them,  who  will  cheerfully  bear  witness  to  the  truth 
of  these  statements  and  to  the  logical  conclusions 
derived  from  them. 

This  is  intended  to  be  only  a  summary  of  the 
events  preceding  the  Civil  War.  Materials  are  at 
hand  sufficient  to  fill  several  volumes ;  but  a  work 
so  extensive  would  seldom  reach  the  ordinary 
reader.  It  has  been  deemed  best,  therefore,  by 
careful  selection  and  condensation,  to  put  the  main 
features  of  this  history  within  the  compass  of  a 
single  volume.  Within  this  narrow  limit  it  will 
not  be  possible  to  describe  the  conflict  within  the 
Territory  of  Kansas,  but  only  the  agency  and  the 
methods  employed  outside  of  her  boundaries,  by 
which  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  were 
aroused  and  united  so  as  effectually  to  co-operate 
in  furnishing  the  men  and  the  means  to  secure  the 
triumph  there  of  the  free-State  cause. 

Prof.  L.  W.  Spring,  in  his  "  Kansas,"  has  given 
a  very  full  and  reliable  history  of  the  Territorial 
struggle,  culminating  in  the  establishment  of  a  free 
State  unsurpassed  in  moral,  intellectual,  and  mate- 
rial prosperity.  Such  success  was  well  earned  by 
the  heroic,  self-sacrificing  pioneers  who  put  before 
the  advancing  and  encroaching  power  of  slavery 
the  impassable  barrier  of  themselves  and  of  the 


viii  PREFACK 

trophies  of  free  labor  by  which  they  were  sur- 
rounded. Thus  have  they  proved  to  the  world  the 
strength  of  freedom  and  the  imbecility  of  slavery. 

In  giving  a  truthful  account  of  the  Kansas  cru- 
sade, it  was  necessary  to  speak  plainly  of  our  allies 
and  also  of  our  enemies.  How  could  a  truthful 
history  of  the  Kevolutionary  "War  be  written  unless 
the  writer  should  describe  the  obstacles  which  our 
patriots  overcame  in  securing  independence?  It 
would  not  be  enough  to  write  only  of  the  British 
and  the  Continentals.  The  Tories,  our  enemies, 
and  the  French,  our  allies,  should  have  prominent 
places.  So  in  this  history  Garrison  and  his  follow- 
ers are  properly  put  among  the  enemies  of  the 
Kansas  crusade,  while  the  clergy,  the  churches,  and 
the  Press  of  the  North  are,  for  abundant  reasons, 
recorded  as  our  friends  and  helpers. 

But  the  Tories  of  Revolutionary  times  were  very 
modest  people  compared  with  the  disunionists  who 
opposed  the  Kansas  crusade.  Of  the  former,  some 
left  the  country  and  others  repented  and  remained. 
None  of  them  had  the  impudence  to  claim  that 
they  secured  the  independence  of  the  colonies. 
Had  they  done  so,  the  rage  of  the  Continentals 
would  have  extinguished  them  and  their  claims  to- 
gether. 

But  these  disunionists  and  their  friends,  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  have  been  parading 
claims  quite  as  baseless  and  absurd. 

It  is  time  that  such  nonsense  came  to  an  end. 
It  is  time  that  such  impudent  falsifying  of  history 
should  be  rebuked.  But  for  these  false  claims,  so 


PREFACE.  ix 

persistently  and  defiantly  presented  that  many  of 
the  present  generation  believe  them  true,  the  writer 
would  have  devoted  no  time  or  attention  to  these 
fanatics.  They  were  too  feeble  to  harm  our  cause, 
and  their  efforts  to  do  so  were  pitiful  indeed.  Had 
they  been  a  thousand  times  as  powerful  as  they 
Avere,  they  could  not  have  hindered  our  organized 
army  of  freemen  who  ended  the  curse  of  slavery. 

But  the  time  has  now  come  when  their  grotesque 
dishonesty  in  opposing  the  Kansas  crusade,  and 
then  in  claiming  as  their  own  work  the  grand  re- 
sults achieved  by  its  heroes,  should  not  longer  be 
endured  in  silence. 

ELI  THAYEK. 

WORCESTER,  MASS.,  1889. 
1* 


INTRODUCTION. 


HE.  THAYER  has  been  good  enough  to  permit  me 
to  contribute  a  few  words  to  this  volume,  Avhich 
will  be  printed,  I  believe,  as  an  introduction.  We 
are  two  old  soldiers  in  this  emigration  cause,  and 
it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  me  to  speak  of  him  who 
planned  the  whole  movement  with  such  distinct 
knowledge  of  what  was  needed,  and  carried  out 
his  plans  with  such  promptness  and  success.  I  am 
more  proud  of  my  part  in  the  settlement  of  Kan- 
sas, though  it  was  only  that  of  a  subordinate,  than 
I  am  of  any  public  service  I  have  ever  rendered. 
I  can  well  suppose  that  he  is  proud  of  his  as  the 
successful  leader.  And  I  should  be  sorry  not  to 
say,  on  all  occasions,  that  to  him  the  work  owed  its 
success,  and  the  nation  owes  all  that  grew  from 
that  success. 

As  early  as  1845  I  had  looked  to  emigration 
from  the  North  as  the  solution  of  the  slavery  prob- 
lems. I  heard  from  the  galleries  of  House  and 
Senate  in  Washington  the  debates  on  the  Joint 
Resolution  which  annexed  Texas.  I  was  in  Wash- 
ington that  winter,  and  in  its  social  circles,  let  me 
say,  I  was  in  a  position  to  suspect  something  of 
the  infamous  corruption  by  which  the  passage  of 
that  resolution  was  bought.  I  returned  to  ISTew 


xu  INTRODUCTION. 

England,  which  was  my  home,  in  March,  1845,  and 
at  once  wrote  and  published  a  pamphlet  called 
"How  to  Conquer  Texas  before  Texas  Conquers 
Us."  It  proposed  a  Northern  emigration  to  Tex- 
as, which  I  was  ready  to  join.  I  hoped  it  would 
quicken  attention,  that  settlers  would  offer  them- 
selves, and  that  we  should  make  the  Mayflower 
company  for  the  redemption  of  that  region.  In 
this  hope  I  was  wholly  disappointed.  I  paid  for 
the  printing  of  my  pamphlet,  and  I  own  the  edi- 
tion now.  I  have  never  heard  that  one  copy  was 
bought  by  any  one,  far  less  that  one  was  read. 

The  truth  was  that  I  did  not  know  how  to  or- 
ganize emigration,  and  probably  also  that  "the 
time  was  not  yet  come." 

But  in  the  spring  of  1854  the  hour  had  come — 
and  the  man.  That  man  was  Eli  Tha}rer,  who  was, 
fortunately,  in  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts; 
well  known  as  a  pronounced  and  eloquent  Free- 
soiler.  The  young  men  of  the  country — I  can  speak 
for  one  of  them — were  wholly  sick  of  talk ;  they 
hated  "  resolutions,"  and  they  wanted  to  do  some- 
thing. Eli  Thayer  showed  what  was  to  be  done, 
and  arranged  the  way. 

It  is  very  curious  that  the  method  of  organizing 
emigration  which  he  invented  had  never  been  hit 
upon  before.  It  is  the  only  method  yet  tried 
which  secures  entire  freedom  to  the  emigrant,  and 
gives  at  the  same  time  the  use  of  capital  contrib- 
uted by  people  who  do  not  emigrate,  and  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  central,  intelligent  supervision.  The 
settler  must  be  left  free.  It  was  not  meant  to  tie 


INTRODUCTION.  xiii 

his  hands  in  a  wilderness.  It  was  not  meant  to 
sacrifice  comfort  and  to  risk  life  for  the  purpose  of 
earning  money  for  people  who  stay  at  home.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  must  be  capital,  if  the  colony 
is  not  to  be  fatally  handicapped,  from  the  begin- 
ning. And  every  colony  which  is  started  without 
central  and  intelligent  supervision  shows  in  its 
after -development  the  unfortunate  consequences. 
Such  consequences  may  be  seen  in  the  history  of 
the  development  of  most  of  our  Western  States. 

Under  Mr.  Thayer's  plan  the  emigrant  paid  his 
own  fare,  but  he  paid  it  with  the  advantages  the 
company  had  gained  for  him  in  making  the  low- 
est contracts  possible  among  competing  lines.  He 
went  where  he  chose.  But  if  he  chose  he  could  go 
in  a  party  of  people  of  like  habits  and  opinions, 
led  by  a  competent  leader  who  knew  the  route. 
He  settled  where  he  pleased.  But  if  he  pleased  he 
might  take  from  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  his  quarter  section  by  the  side  of  those 
taken  by  his  companions,  and  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  mills  built  by  the  company's  capital. 

Now,  in  that  enterprise  the  essential  thing,  as 
was  proved  at  once,  was  the  mutual  support  which 
the'  Northern  settlers  gave  each  other.  The  annals 
of  Kansas  are  full  of  stories  of  the  cruel  deaths  of 
settlers  who  trusted  themselves  alone  to  the  sepa- 
rate squatter  loneliness  of  the  old  Western  ways. 
This  time  there  were  enemies  more  terrible  than 
Shawnees  or  Pawnees.  And  who  shall  say  how 
many  horrors  of  arson  and  murder  in  the  wilder- 
ness are  not  written  in  any  annals  ? 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  people  in  Mr.  Thayer's 
colonies,  in  all  their  hardships,  hung  by  each 
other.  "We  used  to  head  our  placards  "  Saw-mills 
and  Liberty  "  when  we  called  a  public  meeting  in 
New  England.  And  the  very  names  of  "  Lawrence," 
"  Topeka,"  and  other  towns  founded  by  the  New 
England  Emigrant  Aid  Company  under  Mr.  Thay- 
er's plans,  stand  out  as  central  names  in  any  ade- 
quate history  of  that  time. 

I  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  younger  directors  of 
the  company,  and  was  afterwards  its  vice-presi- 
dent, and  had  an  opportunity,  therefore,  to  see  the 
unflinching  spirit  with  which  Mr.  Thayer  carried 
out  his  plans,  and  the  untiring  activity  with  which 
he  drove  them  through.  What  has  happened  in 
thirty-four  years  since  is  this :  Under  his  plans 
four  or  five  thousand  of  the  most  resolute  men  and 
women  whom  the  world  ever  saw  together  went 
into  Kansas.  Five  or  ten  times  that  number  went 
also,  encouraged  by  this  example,  and  confident 
in  their  success.  This  emigration  at  that  time 
would  have  been  impossible  but  for  Eli  Thayer. 
The  first  result  was  civil  war  in  Kansas.  The  sec- 
ond was  the  success  of  the  free-State  settlers.  The 
third  was  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  A 
minor  result  was  that  the  infant  State  of  Kansas, 
only  admitted  into  the  Union  by  Lincoln's  first  Con- 
gress, furnished  more  fighting  men,  in  proportion 
to  her  population,  to  the  Union  army  than  any 
other  State.  As  for  the  change  —  absolute  and 
sweeping — from  Southern  domination  over  Amer- 
ica to  the  Northern  successes  which  took  the 


INTRODUCTION.  xv 

helm  of  the  country  after  1861,  it  is  needless  to 
speak. 

Now  that  it  is  all  over,  it  is  convenient  for  every 
public  man  to  remember  the  share  he  has  taken  in 
this  work,  and  to  congratulate  himself  and  the  coun- 
try on  this  share.  That  is  natural  enough,  and  fair. 
It  is  natural  also  to  say,  "All  this  must  have  come. 
It  is  the  regular  flow  of  history.  The  moment  had 
come  for  action  and  reaction,  and  so  forth,  and 
so  forth."  All  this  is  true.  But  it  is  equally  true 
that  when  the  reservoir  of  Northern  indignation  was 
still  a  reservoir,  with  its  rage  wasted  on  its  banks, 
one  man  saw  where  the  spade-bloAvs  were  to  be 
struck  through  which  the  waters  should  rush  out. 
He  knew  how  to  strike  these  blows — struck  them 
with  his  own  hands— and  made  the  channel  through 
which  the  waters  flowed;  and  that  man  was  Eli 
Thayer. 

When  people  say  "Quite  of  course  —  it  must 
come,"  I  wish  they  would  remember  that  even  the 
judiciary  committee  which  gave  him  the  charter  he 
asked  in  a  Free-soil  Legislature  thought  the  whole 
thing  was  nonsense.  I  wish  they  would  remember 
that  he  had  to  "  hire  a  hall,"  to  use  our  fine  Amer- 
ican proverb,  in  the  city  of  Boston,  and  to  pay  for 
it  with  his  own  money,  before  the  people  of  Boston 
or  of  any  place  could  be  taught  that  here  was  a 
practical  scheme  in  which  they  could  spend  their 
energies. 

After  he  had  shown  the  way,  there  were  enough 
brave  men  who  joined  him.  Not  at  first  in  crowds ; 
but  such  men  count  each  for  a  great  deal,  and 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

there  were  enough.  Such  men  as  Amos  A.  Law- 
rence, J.  M.  S.  Williams,  Martin  Briinmer,  Samuel 
Cabot,  John  Carter  Brown,  George  L.  Stearns — who 
give  themselves  when  they  give  their  money — push 
an  enterprise  steadily,  and  if  it  ought  to  succeed  it 
does  succeed.  The  simplicity,  the  directness,  the 
truth  and  audacity  of  Mr.  Thayer  enlisted  such 
men.  But,  for  one  such  man  who  was  enlisted,  a 
hundred  as  rich  as  they,  and  as  strong  in  a  way, 
if  it  had  been  the  right  way,  refused.  They  had 
the  chance  and  they  did  not  take  it.  It  is  al- 
ways so.  "  Many  are  called,"  and  only  a  handful 
choose  themselves  to  the  forlorn -hope — or  "are 
chosen." 

Now  that  it  is  all  over,  the  men  who  fell  into 
line  in  1856  and  1859  and  1861  think  they  feU  in 
in  1854.  It  is  not  of  much  importance  to  them  or 
to  anybody.  But  for  the  truth  of  history  it  is  im- 
portant to  remember  that  Eli  Thayer  first  saw  how 
to  work,  that  he  first  showed  it  to  America,  and 
that  he  led  the  way. 

I  resist  the  temptation  to  make  extracts  from 
an  immense  correspondence  of  those  early  years, 
which  would  show  who  did  believe,  and  who  did 
not  believe,  in  Mr.  Thayer's  enterprise.  But  the 
following  letters,  of  a  more  recent  date,  are  so  in- 
teresting and  instructive  that  I  like  to  include  them 
in  this  introductory  paper. 

Theodore  Parker,  January  29,  1858,  in  the  Hall 
of  the  State-house,  spoke  as  follows  : 

"Not  to  mention  others  from  New  England  or  elsewhere, 
here  is  a  speech  from  Hon.  Eli  Thayer,  ironical  sometimes,  I  take 


INTRODUCTION.  xvii 

it,  but  plain  and  direct  in  substance.  He  would  have  the  free 
States  send  settlers  to  Northernize  the  South — already  he  has  a 
colony  in  Virginia  —  and  New  Englandize  Central  America. 
'The  Yankee,'  says  Mr.  Thayer,  'has  never  become  a  slave- 
holder unless  he  has  been  forced  to  it  by  the  social  relations  of 
the  slave  State  where  he  lived ;  and  the  Yankee  who  has  become 
a  slave-holder  has  every  day  of  his  life  thereafter  felt  in  his  very 
bones  the  bad  economy  of  the  system.  Why,  sir,  we  can  buy  a 
negro  power  in  a  steam-engine  for  ten  dollars,  and  we  can  feed 
and  clothe  that  power  for  one  year  for  five  dollars;  are  we  the 
men  to  give  $1000  for  an  African  slave,  and  $150  a  year  to  feed 
and  clothe  him  ?'  This  is  an  antislavery  argument  which  trad- 
ers can  understand.  Mr.  Thayer  is  not  so  much  of  a  talker  as 
an  organizer ;  he  puts  his  thoughts  into  works.  You  know 
how  much  Kansas  owes  him  for  the  organization  he  has  set  on 
foot.  One  day  will  he  not  also  revolutionize  Virginia?  There 
is  a  to-morrow  after  to-day." 

Letters  from  Theodore  Parker  to  Eli  Thayer, 
after  the  speeches  in  Congress  on  colonizing  Cen- 
tral America  and  the  "  Suicide  of  Slavery :" 

"  BOSTON,  February  2C,  185S. 

"Hon.  Mr.  Thayer: 

"DEAR  SIR, — I  heartily  thank  you  for  the  brave  speech  you 
made,  and  the  copy  thereof  you  sent  me.  It  seems  to  me  you 
have  hit  the  nail  on  the  head;  for  we  can't  prevent  the  spread 
of  an  industrious,  thoughtful,  and  enterprising  people  into  the 
domains  of  an  idle,  heedless,  and  unprogressive  people,  but  can 
prevent  the  fitting  out  of  hordes  of  pirates.  We  can  organize 
emigration,  and  send  men  to  the  barbarous  country  who  will  do 
much  service  to  themselves,  to  it,  and  to  us.  It  seems  to  me  not 
difficult  to  prevent  slavery  in  Central  America.  The  races  out 
there  have  not  that  immense  vigor  and  love  of  money  which  in- 
cline the  Anglo-Saxon  to  establish  slavery;  and  they  have  not 
the  hatred  against  the  negro  which  marks  the  Americans.  It 
seems  to  me  that  a  well-conducted  emigration  scheme  may  do 
for  Central  America  what  it  has  done  already  for  Kansas,  and  I 
most  heartily  thank  you  for  adding  this  service  to  the  other  great 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

ones  you  have  rendered  already.  Immigration  from  the  free 
States  to  Kansas,  to  Virginia,  to  Central  America,  is  a  most  im- 
portant thing.  I  hope  you  \vill  live  to  accomplish  the  last  as 
happily  as  j'ou  have  before  the  two  first,  and  at  the  same  time 
escape  the  Presidential  Ftver. 

"Yours  truly, 

"THEODORE  PARKER." 

"  BOSTON,  April  5, 1853. 

"Hon.  Mr.  Thayer: 

"DEAR  SIR, — I  thank  you  heartily  for  sending  me  your  speech 
— which  I  have  just  read  aloud — and  still  more  for  making  the 
speech  itself.  You  open  a  new  era  in  the  Congressional  discus- 
sion of  slavery.  You  attack  it  with  wit — light,  easy,  subtle,  and 
delicate  satire.  John  Q.  Adams  used  satire  in  his  way— and 
that,  too,  quite  powerfully.  But  his  satire  was  quantitatively 
great.  Yours  is  qualitatively  nice  and  fine.  There  is  no  reply 
to  such  things.  Your  account  of  the  missionary  '  trials,  dangers, 
and  sufferings'  of  the  South  to  convert  the  heathen  is  masterly; 
it  is  worthy  of  Dean  Swift,  but  is  finer  and  subtler  than  anything 
I  remember  from  him. 

"The  more  serious  part  of  your  speech,  too,  is  quite  fine  and 
valuable.  I  shall  look  with  great  interest  for  the  other  part 
of  it. 

"We  want  all  sorts  of  weapons  to  attack  slavery  with — the 
heavy  breaching  artillery,  and  the  light  horse  which  cuts  the 
lines  asunder,  and  routs  a  whole  column  before  they  know  the 
enemy  is  upon  them. 

"One  day  the  South  will  have  a  deal  of  trouble  from  the  Pacific 
R.  R.  "Wherever  it  is  built  the  Northern  men  will  settle  and 
make  free  States.  And  the  further  south  the  Road  is  located, 
why,  the  further  south  will  a  free  State  be  organized,  and  it  won't 
be  possible  to  have  slave  States  to  the  north  of  it. 
"Believe  me, 

"  Yours  truly, 

"THEODORE  PARKER." 

Samuel  Bowles's  editorial  in  the  Springfield  Re- 
publican, October  27, 185G: 


INTRODUCTION.  xix 

"Eli  Thaycr  is  the  originator,  and  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
great  scheme  of  organized  emigration  into  the  Territories.  He 
has  not  only  a  national  reputation  in  connection  with  this,  one 
of  the  grandest  and  noblest  schemes  of  the  age,  but  his  name  is 
known  the  world  over.  The  border  ruffians  know  him,  and  the 
"Washington  ruffians  as  well." 


The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  one 
of  the  directors  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  and 
a  most  liberal  benefactor  of  Kansas : 

"  Kansas  was  made  a  free  State  through  the  agency  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  and  Eli  Thayer  was  the  getter-up,  and 
the  life,  body,  and  soul  of  it;  and  after  giving  great  credit  to 
Mr.  Lawrence  for  his  liberal  benefactions  to  the  object,  Mr. 
Thayer  was  the  agency,  living  and  moving,  which  put  the  enter- 
prise through. 

"  W.  B.  SPOONER." 


Letter  of  Amos  A.  Lawrence  to  the  Old  Settlers' 
meeting  in  Bismarck  Grove,  Lawrence,  Kansas, 
September,  1877 : 

"Eli  Thayer  preached  up  the  Kansas  crusade.  He  originated 
and  organized  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  in  opposition  to  the 
Southern  statesmen  and  politicians.  Early  in  1854,  several 
months  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  he  wrote 
the  charter  of  that  company,  and  secured  its  passage  through 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  It 
was  he  more  than  any  other  who  turned  the  tide  of  Northern 
emigration  that  year,  and  made  Kansas  a  free  State.  He  trav- 
ersed the  Northern  States  and  aroused  the  people,  depicting  the 
glories  of  that  country,  and  urging  the  emigrants  not  to  turn 
away  from  it,  but  to  go  and  possess  it.  He  never  faltered  in  his 
faith,  and  he  inspired  confidence  everywhere. 

"A.  A.  LAWRENCE." 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

Redpath's  Diary,  New  York  Independent,  De- 
cember 16, 1875 : 

"  Charles  Sumner  said,  in  January,  1857: 

"'The  State  of  Kansas  should  be  named  Thayer.  I  -would 
rather  accomplish  what  he  has  done  than  have  won  the  victory 
at  New  Orleans.'" 

EDWARD  E.  HALE. 

30  Highland  Street,  Roxbury,  Mass., 
March  15,  1889. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

The  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  its  Effect 
upon  the  North. — The  Year  1854  an  Epoch 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

Why  and  How  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  was  Formed. .     18 

CHAPTER  III. 
Horace  Greeley  and  the  "Plan  of  Freedom " 36 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Work  Begun. — Charity  vs.  Business  in  Missionary  En- 
terprise     52 

CHAPTER  V. 

Difficulties  and  Discouragements. — The  Founding  of  Law- 
rence       63 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Impotence  of  the  Antislavery  Disunionists 74 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Abolitionists  and  the  Plan  of  Freedom 94 

CHAPTER  Vin. 
The  Churches  and  the  Cftisade. .  .123 


xxii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

PAGR 

The  Northern  Disunionists 137 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Progress  of  the  Crusade 164 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Kansas  and  John  Brown 186 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  Sinews  of  War 202 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

What  Saved  Kansas .  226 


APPENDIX  I. 
Suicide  of  Slavery 253 

APPENDIX  II. 
Speech  on  the  Central  American  Question 272 

INDEX  . .  .287 


THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  REPEAL  OF 'THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE,  AND  ITS  EF- 
FECT UPON  THE  NORTH. THE  YEAR  1854  AN  EPOCH. 

HISTORY  gives  abundant  proof  that  a  brief  period 
of  time  has  often  determined  the  character  and  des- 
tiny of  a  nation.  Such  a  period  is  properly  called 
its  controlling  or  dominating  epoch. 

In  the  history  of  our  own  country  the  year  1854 
holds  this  commanding  position,  and  governs  all 
our  subsequent  years.  It  was  in  this  year  that  the 
Slave  Power  attained  its  highest  eminence,  and  de- 
molished the  last  barrier  that  stood  in  the  way  of 
its  complete  supremacy  and  its  perpetual  dominion. 
The  executive,  the  legislative,  and  the  judicial  de- 
partments of  the  Government  were  entirely  within 
its  power.  Not  content,  however,  with  the  re- 
peal of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  opened  all 
our  vast  Territorial  possessions  to  Slavery;  not 
content  with  its  well-assured  and  absolute  power 
within  our  national  boundaries,  it  aspired  to  an- 
nex other  countries,  and  under  its  direful  rule  to 
I 


2  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

build  up  a  vast  empire  "on  the  corner-stone  of 
Slavery." 

In  the  same  year,  1854,  a  power  before  unknown 
in  the  world's  history  was  created  and  brought  into 
use  to  save  to  Freedom  all  our  Territories,  then  open 
by  law  to  the  possession  and  dominion  of  Slavery. 
This  new  power  was  an  ORGANIZED,  SELF-SACRIFICING 
EMIGRATION.  Its  mission  was  to  dispute  with  Sla- 
very every  square  foot  of  land  exposed  to  its  con- 
trol. A  hand-to-hand  conflict  was  to  decide  be- 
tween the  system  of  free  labor  and  the  system  of 
slave  labor. 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  May, 
1854,  proved  that  the  legislative  restriction  of  Sla- 
very was  simply  a  delusion,  and  that  the  contest  be- 
tween Freedom  and  Slavery,  if  such  a  contest  were 
yet  possible,  must  be  carried  on  outside  of  legisla- 
tive halls.  It  must  be  a  contest  on  the  prairies, 
and  the  power  victorious  there  would,  in  due  time, 
govern  the  country. 

"Was  it  possible  to  bring  these  two  kinds  of  civ- 
ilization to  a  decisive  struggle?  Was  it  possible 
to  arouse  the  North  to  effective  resistance  after 
more  than  thirty  years  of  continuous  defeat  by 
the  South  ? 

During  all  this  period  of  the  successful  aggres- 
sion and  increasing  strength  of  Slavery  there  was 
in  the  Xorth  corresponding  apprehension  and  alarm. 
On  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  the  ap- 
prehension became  despondency,  and  the  alarm  be- 
came despair. 

While  this  proposed  measure,  embodied  in  the 


ALARM  OF  THE  NORTH.  3 

Kansas  -  Nebraska  Bill,  was  pending  before  Con- 
gress the  Northern  States  became  a  scene  of 
unprecedented  resentment,  agitation,  and  alarm. 
Clergymen  in  New  England  and  other  localities 
protested  against  the  measure  "  in  the  name  of  Al- 
mighty God."  The  people,  of  all  grades  and  con- 
ditions, with  patriotic  impulse,  gathered  in  halls,  in 
churches,  and  school-houses  to  put  on  record  their 
fierce  denunciation  of  the  "  unparalleled  swindle." 
The  entire  North  was  one  boiling  caldron  of  indig- 
nation. Burning  patriotism  burst  forth  in  fiery 
words,  made  still  more  emphatic  by  acts  of  graphic 
significance,  which  caused  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the 
champion  of  the  bill,  to  say,  "  I  could  travel  from 
Boston  to  Chicago  by  the  light  of  my  own  burning 
effigies."  William  Cullen  Bryant  said  at  this  time 
in  the  New  York  Evening  Post:  "If  this  paper 
were  three  times  its  present  size,  and  if  it  were  is- 
sued three  times  a  day  instead  of  once,  we  could 
not  then  have  space  enough  to  record  the  action  of 
patriotic  meetings  throughout  the  Northern  States 
protesting  against  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise by  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill." 

What  was  the  reason  for  this  universal  excite- 
ment ?  Why  all  this  vehemence  of  language  and 
of  action  ?  It  was  all  based  upon  the  general  con- 
viction in  the  North  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  not  only  doomed  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
to  slavery,  but  also  put  the  whole  country  under 
the  domination  of  the  "  Black  Power  "  for  centu- 
ries to  come. 


4  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

In  all  the  numerous  protesting  mass  -  meetings 
and  conventions  the  orators  were  mostly  conserva- 
tive men  who  had  never  felt  the  emasculating  pow- 
er of  sentimental  ideas  upon  the  slavery  question. 
They  were  sturdy  patriots,  however,  as  were  also 
their  audiences. 

The  protesting  meeting  in  Boston  was  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall  on  the  afternoon  of  the  23d  of  Febru- 
ary, 1854.  Although  a  fierce  snow-storm  was  rag- 
ing nearly  five  thousand  citizens  assembled  in  the 
old  Cradle  of  Liberty,  and  expressed  their  "  surprise 
and  alarm  "  at  the  proposed  "  breach  of  faith  "  and 
"national  dishonor."  As  this  meeting  may  be 
taken  as  a  sample  of  thousands  of  others,  its  organ- 
ization, and  extracts  from  its  speeches  and  resolu- 
tions, are  here  given : 

[From  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser.] 

MEETING  IN  FANEUIL  HALL  TO  PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  RE- 
PEAL OF  THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE,  ON  THE  AFTERNOON 
OF  FEBRUARY  23,  1854. 

President. — Hon.  Samuel  A.  Eliot. 

Vice-Presidents. — Hon.  J.  V.  C.  Smith,  Mayor  of  Boston;  Hon. 
James  Adams,  Mayor  of  Charlestown ;  Hon.  James  D.  Green, 
Mayor  of  Cambridge;  Hon.  Linus  B.  Comins,  Mayor  of  Rox- 
bury;  Hon. Daniel  C.  Baker,  Mayor  of  Lynn;  Hon.  Asahel  Hunt- 
ington,  Mayor  of  Salem ;  Hon.  Benjamin  Gorham,  Hon.  Na- 
than Appleton,  Hon.  Abbot  Lawrence,  Hon.  Robert  C.  "Win- 
throp,  late  members  of  Congress ;  Hon.  Charles  Wells,  Hon. 
Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.,  Hon.  John  P.  Bigelow,  late  Mayors  of  Bos- 
ton; and  more  than  fifty  others  of  the  most  influential  citizens 
of  Boston. 

This  meeting  resolved:  "That  the  propositions  now  pending 
in  Congress  for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  have 
justly  filled  our  community  with  surprise  and  alarm. 


PROTESTING  MEETINGS  AND  SPEECHES.  5 

"  That  we  protest  against  such  repeal  as  a  deliberate  breach  of 
the  plighted  faith  of  the  nation,  as  tending  to  weaken  the  claims 
of  our  common  country  upon  the  confidence  and  affection  of  its 
people." 

Speeches  were  made  by  the  President,  Hon.  Samuel  A.  Eliot, 
Hon.  J.  Thomas  Stevenson,  Hon.  George  S.  Hillard,  Hon.  Rob- 
ert C.  Winthrop,  and  Rev.  George  W.  Blagden,  D.D. 

Extract  from.  Mr.  Hillard's  speech : 

"  What  most  tries  our  spirits  is  the  claim,  so  constantly  put 
forth,  that  liberty  is,  in  its  essence,  no  better  than  slavery;  that 
both  have  the  same  right  to  come  into  court  and  hold  up  their 
hands  before  God  and  man.  .  .  . 

"Our  Southern  brethren  should  understand  that  there  is  an 
antislavery  sentiment  at  the  North  which  is  neither  Abolitionism 
nor  Free-soilism.  It  is  a  principle  as  well  as  a  sentiment — fed 
by  the  salient  streams  which  flow  from  the  mind  and  heart.  It 
is  at  once  a  logical  deduction  of  the  understanding  and  a  primi- 
tive instinct  of  the  soul.  .  .  . 

"We  found  our  protest  against  the  bill  now  before  Congress 
upon  the  fact  that  it  is  a  breach  of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  na- 
tion; and  further,  because  it  is  a  breach  of  the  plighted  faith  of 
the  nation  in  favor  of  slavery." 

Extract  from  the  speech  of  Hon.  Eobert  C.  Win- 
throp : 

"I  can  never,  certainly,  be  unprepared  to  declare  my  earnest 
and  unhesitating  opposition  to  the  repeal  of  a  solemn  stipulation 
which  has  prohibited  slavery  forever  within  the  limits  of  that 
vast  imperial  domain  whose  destiny  is  now  about  to  be  decided. 
When  I  am  not  ready  at  any  hour,  in  any  presence,  under  any 
circumstances,  to  make  this  declaration,  I  shall,  at  least,  take 
good  care  not  to  show  my  face  in  Faneuil  Hall.  Fellow-citi- 
zens, in  every  view  which  I  can  take  of  this  Nebraska  Bill — in 
its  relations  to  the  poor  Indian,  in  its  relations  to  slavery,  in  its 
relations  to  the  national  faith,  the  national  honor,  the  national 
harmony,  in  every  view  alike — I  cannot  but  deplore  its  introduc- 
tion. I  cannot  but  deplore  its  passage.  .  .  . 


0  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"Upon  what  grounds  is  such  a  measure  justified?  Why,  I 
am  amazed,  Mr.  President,  as  you  certainly  must  be  also,  when 

1  find  it  seriously  advanced  and  maintained  that  the  adjustment 
of  1850  was  understood  or  intended  to  repeal  or  supersede  the 
old  Compromise  of  1820.  .  .  . 

"What,  sir !  A  constructive  repeal  of  a  formal  compact  of 
more  than  thirty  years'  standing!  A  solemn  covenant  over- 
turned by  an  inference;  superseded  by  what  is  called  a  principle; 
emanating — let  me  rather  say  extorted — from  a  settlement  of  a 
wholly  different  and  independent  issue !  Who  ever  heard  of 
such  a  proceeding  or  of  such  a  proposition  as  this?  .  .  . 

"But,  fellow -citizens,  whatever  others  may  do  or  say,  our 
course  is  plain;  and  I  rejoice  that  there  is  neither  halting  nor 
hesitation  in  pursuing  it.  I  rejoice  to  perceive,  from  all  the 
circumstances  of  this  and  other  occasions,  that,  whatever  may 
have  been  our  differences  heretofore  upon  other  topics,  a  firm, 
earnest,  and  united  remonstrance  against  a  measure  so  full  at 
once  of  evil  omen  and  of  real  wrong  as  this  is  about  to  go  up  to 
the  capital  of  the  nation  from  this  time -honored  Temple  of 
Freedom." 

A  similar  meeting  was  subsequently  held  by  the 
German  residents  of  Boston,  while  in  every  city 
and  in  nearly  all  the  towns  through  the  North 
there  were  patriotic  gatherings  actuated  by  like 
feelings,  and  uttering  like  protests. 

The  Compromise  of  1820  was  regarded  at  the 
time  in  the  Northern  States  as  a  concession  to 
Slavery.  But  later  than  this,  Calhoun  had  com- 
bined the  South  in  the  interests  of  slave  prop- 
erty, both  for  offensive  and  defensive  action ;  and 
the  North  had  witnessed  the  aggressions  and  tri- 
umphs of  this  oligarchy  continuously  ever  since. 
Many  had  come  to  believe,  as  some  had  been  for 
a  long  time  saying,  that  Slavery  had  always  had 
its  own  way,  and  always  would  have  it.  Up  to 


FREE-SOIL  PARTY  POWERLESS.  7 

this  year — 1854 — it  had  met  with  no  effective 
resistance  whatever.  Even  now  there  was  no  po- 
litical organization  of  any  influence  or  power  to 
resist  it.  There  was,  indeed,  the  Free -soil  party, 
created  by  Van  Buren  in  1848,  but  it  was  now 
only  one -third  as  strong  in  numbers  as  it  had 
been  at  the  time  of  its  birth.  A  few  of  its  mem- 
bers, by  a  skilful  coalition  with  the  other  parties  in 
several  States,  had  become  members  of  Congress ; 
but  so  little  faith  did  these  have  in  its  stability 
or  future  power  that  nearly  all  of  them  in  1852 
advocated  the  disbanding  of  the  organization  and 
the  fusing  with  the  "Whig  party.  At  a  caucus 
held  in  Washington  in  that  year  Salmon  P.  Chase 
and  John  P.  Hale  advocated  this  course,  Joshua  R. 
Giddings  assented  to  it,  Charles  Sumner  did  not 
oppose  it.  Charles  Allen,  of  Worcester,  was  the 
only  speaker  who  resisted  the  proposition,  but  his 
resistance  was  so  strenuous  and  effective  that  the 
project  was  abandoned. 

This  party  then  was  not  of  a  kind  to  give  any 
hope  or  comfort  to  the  North.  As  to  the  Garrison 
Abolitionists,  they  were  still  less  powerful  and 
utterly  impracticable.  They  were  outside  of  all 
parties,  and  still  more  outside  of  public  confidence 
and  sympathy.  They  had  always  impaired  and 
crippled  every  cause  they  had  advocated.  Every 
political  organization  dreaded  any  contact  with 
them,  and  would  have  regarded  their  indorsement 
as  the  greatest  possible  calamity — the  harbinger 
of  certain  defeat  and  annihilation.  So  they  were 
not  even  thought  of  as  a  power  to  resist  either  the 


8  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

encroachments  of  Slavery  then  threatened,  or  any 
future  encroachments.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century 
they  had  been  making  violent  efforts  to  put  an  end 
to  slavery,  as  they  maintained,  through  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Church,  the  Constitution,  and  the  Union. 
By  their  own  confession,  they  had  seen  that  power 
"go  on  from  victory  to  victory,"  becoming  more 
and  more  irresistible  by  the  lapse  of  time.  They 
were  therefore  of  too  little  account  to  be  consid- 
ered in  the  impending  emergency. 

Evidence  abounds  to  prove  the  almost  universal 
conviction  of  the  hopelessness  of  resisting  the  pow- 
er of  Slavery. 

In  the  Liberator,  June  15, 1855,  "Wendell  Phillips 
says,  in  substance : 

"Upon  the  advent  of  Charles  Sumner  in  "Washington,  John 
Davis  said  to  him,  '  Mr.  Sumner,  I  will  tell  you  the  result  of  the 
experience  of  my  long  public  service — Slavery  rules  everything 
here.' .  .  . 

"  The  testimony  of  John  Quincy  Adams  was  the  same.  .  .  . 

"Edmund  Quincy,  after  a  life  that  had  uttered  the  same 
truth,  with  eighty  years  on  his  brow,  he  tells  us,  in  his  recent 
letter,  that  with  the  capital  and  the  prejudices  and  the  Constitu- 
tion against  the  autislavery  movement,  he  hardly  sees  where 
there  is  any  ground  for  hope  of  its  success.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  from  voices  like  these  that  we  learn  the  hidden  disease 
that  eats  out  the  nation's  life." 

Hon.  Hannibal  Hamlin,  in  February,  1888,  in  his 
address  before  the  Yeteran  Republican  Club,  said  : 

"  Ah,  how  well  do  I  remember  the  conflicts  through  which 
we  passed  in  attempting  to  keep  this  curse  out  of  the  free  Terri- 
tories of  the  land!  "We  sought  to  prevent  its  polluting  touch, 
and  step  by  step  we  saw  our  failure.  It  was  humiliating  beyond 
description. .  .. 


"SLAVERY  CONTROLS  EVERYTHING."       9 

"  How  we  struggled!  Year  after  year  that  struggle  was  con- 
tinued, till  finally  the  doctrine  of  pro-slavery  dominated  every 
department  of  the  Government.  It  sat  enthroned  in  the  White 
House,  and  there  was  no  road  to  popular  favor  but  in  submis- 
sion to  Slavery." 

Theodore  Parker,  in  Music  Hall,  Boston,  July  2, 
1854  (Liberator,  August  10, 1854),  said : 

"  In  the  steady  triumph  of  despotism,  ten  years  more  like  the 
ten  years  past  and  it  will  be  all  over  with  the  liberties  of  Amer- 
ica. Everything  must  go  down,  and  the  heel  of  the  tyrant  will 
be  on  our  necks.  It  will  be  all  over  with  the  rights  of  man  in 
America,  and  you  and  I  must  go  to  Australia,  to  Italy,  or  to  Si- 
beria for  our  freedom,  or  perish  with  the  liberty  which  our  fa- 
thers fought  for  and  secured  to  themselves,  not  to  their  faithless 
sons.  Shall  America  thus  miserably  perish?  Such  is  the  aspect 
of  things  to-day." 

Again,  he  says  (see  Liberator,  May  19, 1854) : 

"There  is  not  one  spot  of  free  soil  from  Nootka  Sound  to 
Key  West.  In  no  part  of  the  country  is  there  freedom.  The 
Supreme  Court  is  a  slave  court,  the  Senate  is  a  slave  Senate,  the 
Senators  are  overseers,  Mr.  Douglas  is  a  great  overseer,  and  Mr. 
Everett  a  little  overseer.  The  press  is  generally  the  friend  of 
Slavery." 

Colonel  Benton,  in  his  review  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  says : 

"  Up  to  Mr.  Pierce's  administration  the  plan  had  been  defen- 
sive; that  is  to  say,  to  make  the  secession  of  the  South  a  measure 
of  self-defence  against  the  abolition  encroachments  and  crusades 
of  the  North.  In  the  time  of  Mr.  Pierce  the  plan  became  offen- 
sive; that  is  to  say,  to  commence  the  expansion  of  slavery,  and 
the  acquisition  of  territory  to  spread  it  over,  so  as  to  overpower 
the  North  with  new  slave  States  and  to  drive  them  out  of  the 
Union.  .  .  . 

"The  rising  in  the  free  States,  in  consequence  of  the  ab- 
rogation of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  checked  these  schemes, 
1* 


10  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

and  limited  the  success  of  the  disunionists  to  the  revival  of  the 
agitation  which  enables  them  to  wield  the  South  against  the 
North  in  all  the  federal  elections  and  all  federal  legislation. 
Accidents  and  events  have  given  the  party  a  strange  pre-eminence 
— under  Jackson's  administration  proclaimed  for  treason:  since 
at  the  head  of  the  Government  and  the  Democratic  party.  The 
death  of  Harrison  and  the  accession  of  Tyler  was  their  first 
great  lift ;  the  election  of  Mr.  Pierce  was  their  culminating 
point." 

Like  testimony  could  be  increased  almost  with- 
out limit,  but  perhaps  this  is  sufficient  to  show  the 
absolute  control  of  Slavery  in  the  year  1854.  The 
speeches  in  Congress,  however,  and  the  editorials  of 
influential  journalists,  prove  that  there  was  no  hope 
of  rescuing  Kansas  from  the  grasp  of  this  resistless 
power,  should  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  become  a 
law.  A  few  examples  of  such  evidence  are  here 
inserted.  Altogether  they  are  a  very  minute  frac- 
tion of  such  testimony  which  could  be  easily  col- 
lected from  numerous  other  Congressional  speeches, 
from  editorials,  from  speeches  made  at  all  the  mass- 
meetings  through  the  North  to  protest  against  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  These  are  all 
on  record  and  within  reach  of  the  future  historian. 

The  following  may  therefore  be  taken  as  speci- 
mens of  innumerable  records  representing  the 
Northern  sentiment. 

Charles  Sumner,  in  his  speech  in  the  Senate,  on 
February  21, 1854,  said : 

"  It  is  clear  beyond  dispute  that  by  the  overthrow  of  this  Pro- 
hibition, slavery  will  be  quickened  and  slaves  themselves  multi- 
plied, while  new  room  and  verge  will  be  secured  for  the  gloomy 
operations  of  slave  law,  under  which  free  labor  will  droop  and 


SUMNER,  GIDDINGS,  SEWARD.  11 

a  vast  territory  be  smitten  with  sterility.     Sir,  a  blade  of  grass 
would  not  grow  where  the  horse  of  Attila  had  trod;  nor  can 

any  true  prosperity  spring  up  in  the  footprints  of  a  slave. 
******* 

"You  are  asked  to  destroy  a  safeguard  of  Freedom,  conse- 
crated by  solemn  compact,  under  which  the  country  is  reposing 
in  the  security  of  peace,  and  thus  confirm  the  supremacy  of 

slavery. 

******* 

"The  simple  question  which  challenges  answer  is,  whether 
Nebraska  shall  be  preserved  in  the  condition  of  Illinois  or  sur- 
rendered to  that  of  Missouri?  Surely  this  cannot  be  treated 
lightly." 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  May  16, 1854, 
Hon.  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  said : 

"MR.  CHAIRMAN, — Who  does  not  know  that  the  Southern  and 
servile  presses  are  already  proclaiming  that  when  this  bill  shall 
have  been  passed,  slavery  shall  next  be  admitted  into  Minnesota, 
Washington,  and  Oregon?  Who  does  not  know  that  the  Presi- 
dent and  Cabinet  are  laboring  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  a 
war  upon  Spain,  with  the  undisguised  purpose  of  maintaining 
slavery  in  Cuba?  That  they  are  prepared  to  sacrifice  the  lives 
of  our  citizens  by  thousands,  in  order  to  stay  the  progress  of  civ- 
ilization in  that  island?  That  the  whole  administration  press  of 
the  country  sustains  these  executive  views?  That  Southern  pa- 
pers insist  that  we  shall  also  conquer  St.  Domingo  and  restore 
slavery  there?  Then  form  an  alliance  with  slave-holding  Brazil, 
as  the  only  nation  besides  ours  that  legalizes  the  crimes  of  the 
peculiar  institution?  That  we  shall  then  restore  the  African 
slave-trade,  and  thus  disgrace  our  Government  and  sink  it  to  a 
piratical  power  for  propagating  oppression  and  crime?  .  .  . 

"This  measure  is  treason  to  humanity,  treason  to  liberty,  and 
treason  to  the  Constitution. 

******* 

"  To  surrender  this  vast  Territory  to  slavery  will  exclude  free 
men  from  it;  for,  as  I  have  said,  free  laborers,  bred  up  with  feel- 
ings of  self-respect,  cannot,  and  will  not,  mingle  with  slaves. 
For  these  reasons  it  is  most  obvious  that  the  character  of  the 


12  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

States  to  be  carved  out  of  this  Territory  will  be  determined  by 
that  of  the  government  now  to  be  established.  If  the  Territory 
be  settled  by  slave-holders,  the  States  will  of  course  be  slave- 
holding  States." 

Hon.  "William  H.  Seward,  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  on  May  25, 1854,  said : 

"The  sun  has  set  for  the  last  time  upon  the  guaranteed  and 
certain  liberties  of  all  the  unsettled  and  unorganized  portions  of 
the  American  continent  that  lie  withiu  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  To-morrow's  sun  will  rise  in  dim  eclipse  over 
them.  How  long  that  obscuration  shall  last  is  known  only  to 
the  Power  that  directs  and  controls  all  human  events.  For  my- 
self, I  know  only  this:  that  no  human  power  can  prevent  its 
coming  on,  and  that  its  passing  off  will  be  hastened  and  secured 
by  others  than  those  now  here,  and  perhaps  only  by  those  belong- 
ing to  future  generations. 

"  Sir,  it  would  be  almost  factious  to  offer  further  resistance  to 
this  measure  here.  Indeed,  successful  resistance  was  never  ex- 
pected to  be  made  in  this  hall.  The  Senate  is  an  old  battle- 
ground, on  which  have  been  fought  many  contests,  and  always, 
at  least  since  1820,  with  fortune  adverse  to  the  cause  of  equal 
and  universal  freedom.  .  .  . 

"  Notwithstanding  all  this,  however,  what  has  occurred  here 
and  in  the  country  during  this  contest  has  compelled  a  convic- 
tion that  slavery  will  gain  something,  and  freedom  will  endure 
a  severe  though  I  hope  not  an  irretrievable  loss.  The  slave- 
holding  States  are  passive,  quiet,  content,  and  satisfied  with  the 
prospective  boon,  and  the  free  States  are  excited  and  alarmed 
with  fearful  forebodings  and  apprehensions.  .  .  . 

"I  say  only  that  there  may  be  an  extent  of  intervention,  of 
aggression  on  your  side,  which  may  induce  the  North  at  some 
time,  either  in  this  or  some  future  generation,  to  adopt  your  tac- 
tics and  follow  your  example." 

Extract  from  the  speech  of  Hon.  Benjamin  F. 
"Wade,  in  the  United  States  Senate,  May  25, 1854 : 

MR.  PRESIDENT, — I  do  not  intend  to  debate  this  subject  further. 
The  humiliation  of  the  North  is  complete  and  overwhelming. 


WADE,  CHASE,  AND  GREELEY.  13 

No  Southern  enemy  of  hers  can  wish  her  deeper  degradation. 
God  knows  I  feel  it  keenly  enough,  and  I  have  no  desire  to  pro- 
long the  melancholy  spectacle.  I  know  full  well  that  no  words 
of  mine  can  save  the  country  from  this  impending  dishonor, 
this  great  meditated  wrong,  which  is  big  with  danger  to  the  good 
neighborhood  of  the  different  sections  of  the  country,  if  not  to 
the  stability  of  the  Union  itself.  But  full  well  I  know  that  this 
hated  measure  is  to  pass ;  it  is  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  can- 
not be  averted  or  delayed.  .  .  . 

"Now,  Mr.  President,  while  this  great  wrong  which  you  are 
about  to  perpetrate — this  wrong  to  the  North,  this  wrong  to  hu- 
manity, this  wrong  to  mankind  everywhere — shall  remain  upon 
your  statute-book  unrepealed,  I  shall  take  but  little  interest  in 
whatever  else  you  may  do.  .  .  . 

"An  empire  is  to  be  transformed  from  freedom  to  slavery, 
and  the  people  must  not  be  consulted  on  such  a  question,  so  big 
with  weal  or  woe  to  the  millions  who  are  to  people  these  vast 
regions  in  all  time  to  come. 

"To-morrow,  I  believe,  there  is  to  be  an  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
and  I  think  that  the  sun  in  the  heavens  and  the  glory  of  this 
republic  should  both  go  into  obscurity  and  darkness  together. 
Let  the  bill  then  pass.  It  is  a  proper  occasion  for  so  dark  and 
damning  a  deed." 

The  following  is  from  the  speech  of  Hon.  Sal- 
mon P.  Chase,  United  States  Senate,  May  25, 
1854: 

"This  bill  doubtless  paves  the  way  for  the  approach  of  new, 
alarming,  and  perhaps  fatal  dangers  to  our  country.  It  is  the 
part  of  freemen  gtad  lovers  of  freedom  to  stand  upon  their  guard 
and  prepare  for  the  worst  events.  It  is  because  this  bill  puts  in 
peril  great  and  precious  interests,  reverses  the  ancient  and  settled 
policy  of  the  Government,  and  breaks  down  a  great  safeguard 
of  liberty,  that  I  have  felt  myself  constrained  to  resist  it  firmly 
and  persistently,  though  without  avail.  All  that  now  remains 
for  me  is  to  enter  against  it,  as  I  now  do,  my  earnest  and  solemn 
protest,  and  to  join  with  my  colleague  in  recording  against  it 
the  vote  of  Ohio." 


14  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Horace  Greeley,  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  Jan- 
uary 6, 1854,  says : 

"The  Thirty-first  Congress  inaugurated  the  era  of  submission 
to  slavery.  Since  then  everything  has  gone  on  swimmingly  in 
this  line.  Not  ouly  was  the  slavery  question  compromised,  but 
the  character  and  reputation  and  principles  of  hundreds  of  our 
public  men  were  compromised  by  the  same  operation.  There 
was  a  general  debauch  and  demoralization  throughout  all  polit- 
ical circles,  as  was  clearly  manifest  in  the  triumphant  run  of 
General  Pierce. 

' '  If  General  Taylor  had  lived,  and  if  the  Wilmot  Proviso  doc- 
trine had  substantially  triumphed,  as  it  would  have  done  through 
the  instrumentality  of  his  policy,  we  should  have  seen  the  re- 
verse of  what  we  now  see.  Freedom's  battle  was  fought  and 
lost  in  1830,  and  the  cowards  and  traitors  have  all  run  to  the 
winning  side." 

Again,  in  the  same  paper,  March  14, 1854  : 

"We  as  a  nation  are  ruled  by  the  Black  Power.  It  is  com- 
posed of  tyrants.  See,  then,  how  the  North  is  always  beaten. 
The  Black  Power  is  a  unit.  It  is  a  steady,  never-failing  force. 
It  is  a  real  power.  Thus  far  it  has  been  the  only  unvarying 
power  of  the  country,  for  it  never  surrenders  and  never  wavers. 
It  has  always  governed,  and  now  governs  more  than  ever." 

Same  paper,  May  24, 1854 : 

"  The  revolution  is  accomplished,  and  Slavery  is  king!  How 
long  shall  this  monarch  reign?  This  is  now  the  question  for  the 
Northern  people  to  answer.  Their  representatives  have  crowned 
the  new  potentate,  and  the  people  alone  can  depose  him.  If  we 
were  a  few  steps  further  advanced  in  the  drama  of  reaction,  he 
could  only  be  hurled  from  his  seat  through  a  bloody  contest." 

Again,  June  24, 1854 : 

"Not  even  by  accident  is  any  advantage  left  for  liberty  in 
their  bill.  It  is  all  blackness,  without  a  single  gleam  of  light — a 
desert  without  one  spot  of  verdure — a  crime  that  can  show  no 
redeeming  point.  .  .  . 


KANSAS  CONCEDED  TO  SLAVERY.  15 

"  A  Territory  which  one  short  year  ago  was  unanimously  con- 
sidered by  all,  North  and  South,  as  sacredly  secured  by  irrepeal- 
able  law  to  FREEDOM  FOREVER,  has  been  foully  betrayed  by 
traitor  hearts  and  traitor  voices,  and  surrendered  to  slavery." 

The  above  extracts  prove  the  gloom  and  de- 
spondency of  the  North  in  view  of  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise.  The  people  of  the  free 
States  believed,  as  they  had  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve, that  by  that  act  Kansas  and  Nebraska  would 
become  slave  States,  and  the  power  of  Slavery 
would  be  thereby  made  absolute  and  perpetual. 

There  is  one  paragraph  in  Senator  Seward's 
speech  which  is  so  unlike  the  other  parts  of  it,  and 
so  unlike  anything  ever  before  uttered  by  him,  that 
it  requires  explanation.  The  paragraph  is  the  fol- 
lowing :  "  Come  on,  then,  gentlemen  of  the  slave 
States,  since  there  is  no  escaping  your  challenge. 
I  accept  it  in  behalf  of  freedom.  We  will  engage 
in  competition  for  the  virgin  soil  of  Kansas,  and 
God  give  the  victory  to  the  side  that  is  stronger  in 
numbers,  as  it  is  in  right."  To  this  passage  has 
been  given  the  credit  of  inaugurating  the  Kansas 
contest.  But  this  defiance  of  Mr.  Seward  was  very 
far  from  being  original.  Many  weeks  before,  the 
plan  and  purposes  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company 
had  been  made  public.  Their  charter,  granted  by 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  allowing  them  a  cap- 
ital of  $5,000,000,  was  an  earlier  and  stronger  de- 
fiance of  the  slaveocracy  of  the  South  than  any- 
thing ever  uttered  in  the  halls  of  our  national 
Legislature.  It  had  been  published  everywhere, 
North  and  South.  There  was  not  a  member  of 


16  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Congress  who  did  not  know  it.  It  was  the  origin 
and  the  basis  of  Mr.  Se  ward's  defiance.  But  while 
the  New  York  Senator  "  cast  this  anchor  to  the 
windward,"  he  proves  clearly  in  the  extract  from 
another  part  of  the  same  speech  that  he  had  no 
faith  whatever  in  the  methods  proposed  by  this 
company.  He  conceded  Kansas  and  the  other  Ter- 
ritories to  slavery,  and  said  if  they  shall  ever  be 
made  free,  "that  result  will  be  hastened  and  se- 
cured by  others  than  those  now  here,  and  per- 
haps by  only  those  belonging  to  future  genera- 
tions." 

The  same  criticism  can  properly  be  made  upon 
Charles  Sumner's  remark  at  the  time  of  the  passage 
of  the  bill:  "Thus  it  puts  Freedom  and  Slavery 
face  to  face  and  bids  them  grapple.  Who  can 
doubt  the  result?"  In  Mr.  Sumner's  speech  upon 
the  same  subject,  made  three  months  earlier,  there 
is  no  expression  of  faith  that  the  freedom  of  Kan- 
sas could  be  secured  by  a  conflict  between  the 
forces  of  Freedom  and  Slavery.  The  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  gave  him  and  Mr.  Seward  and  the 
country  that  revelation.  But  the  following  ex- 
tract from  the  same  speech  of  the  Massachusetts 
Senator  proves  that  he,  too,  had  no  hope  whatever 
of  a  speedy  triumph  of  freedom.  He  plainly  ex- 
presses his  belief  that  slavery  will  be  established 
in  both  Territories,  but  at  the  same  time  cherishes 
the  hope  of  a  subsequent  resurrection  of  freedom 
in  the  indefinite  future.  He  says : 

"In  a  Christian  land,  and  in  an  age  of  civilization,  a  time-hon- 
ored statute  of  freedom  is  struck  down;  opening  the  way  to  all 


SUMNER  AND  SEWARD  HOPELESS.  17 

the  countless  woes  and  wrongs  of  human  bondage.  Among  the 
crimes  of  history  another  is  about  to  be  recorded,  which  no  tears 
can  blot  out,  and  which,  in  better  days,  will  be  read  with  uni- 
versal shame.  .  .  . 

"Standing  at  the  very  grave  of  freedom  in  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska, I  lift  myself  to  the  vision  of  that  happy  resurrection  by 
which  freedom  will  be  secured  hereafter,  not  only  in  these  Ter- 
ritories, but  everywhere  under  the  National  Government." 


CHAPTER  II. 

WHY     AND     HOW     THE     EMIGRANT     AID     COMPANY    WAS 
FOKMED. 

ON  May  30, 1854,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  con- 
taining the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  was 
signed  by  President  Pierce,  and  became  the  law  of 
the  land.  "When  this  news  reached  the  Northern 
States  the  bells  were  tolled  for  the  death  of  Free- 
dom. The  slave  States,  with  thirty-five  years  of 
political  supremacy  and  the  prestige  of  this  last 
great  victory  over  the  North,  with  perfect  disci- 
pline and  irresistible  power,  were  confident  of  un- 
disputed control  in  the  Government  for  generations 
to  come.  They  already  had  the  Chief  Executive, 
his  Cabinet,  the  Supreme  Court,  both  houses  of 
Congress,  and  the  army  and  navy  to  do  their  bid- 
ding. Great  as  was  their  present  power,  their  pro- 
spective power  was  even  much  more  alarming. 
Kansas  and  Nebraska,  with  all  the  Territories  west 
and  south  of  them,  were  to  become  slave  States. 
Five  more  were  to  be  made  of  Texas.  The  purpose 
of  acquiring  Cuba  and  Central  America  for  their 
further  aggrandizement  was  developing  into  action. 
Why,  then,  should  the  South  doubt  for  an  instant 
the  certainty  of  her  perpetual  power?  In  a  few 
years  her  Senators  in  Congress  would  nearly  double 
the  number  from  the  North.  Their  skill  in  di- 


POWER  AND  PROSPECTS  OF  SLAVERY.  19 

plomacy  and  politics,  acquired  by  unremitting 
practice  and  study,  much  excelled  that  of  the 
Northern  people,  whose  minds  were  occupied  by  a 
manifold  system  of  industries  requiring  constant 
attention,  as  well  as  by  a  great  number  of  social, 
commercial,  charitable,  religious,  and  educational 
organizations.  No  wonder  that  we  were  hopeless 
and  helpless.  We  had  no  political  organization  of 
any  strength  to  oppose  to  slavery.  The  Liberty 
party,  which  for  a  few  years  maintained  a  kind 
of  indefinite,  nebulous  existence,  always  without 
strength  or  the  faintest  hope  of  success,  had  been 
absorbed  in  1848  by  Yan  Buren's  Free-soil  party. 
This  party  was  more  the  offspring  of  spleen  and 
revenge  than  of  antislavery  principle.  Yan  Buren 
desired  to  gratify  his  personal  hostility  to  Lewis 
Cass,  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency, 
while  the  "Whig  contingent  of  Massachusetts  was 
led  by  men  who  had  long  chafed  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Webster  and  Winthrop,  of  Everett  and 
Lawrence,  and  who  had  waited  for  years  for  an 
opportunity  to  bolt  from  the  party.  The  nomina- 
tion of  Taylor  in  1848  gave  them  a  sufficient  ex- 
cuse (in  their  own  estimation)  for  such  action.  So 
they  readily  joined  the  disaffected  Democrats  of 
New  York  in  the  Buffalo  Convention  of  that  year. 
But  the  new  party,  without  securing  one  electoral 
vote,  and  without  the  slightest  prospect  of  ever  sus- 
taining by  law  their  one  cardinal  principle  of  ex- 
cluding slavery  from  the  Territories  by  Act  of  Con- 
gress grew  less  and  less  every  year,  until  in  1853 
their  votes  in  New  York  and  New  England  were 


20  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

only  one-third  as  many  as  in  1848.*  Now,  in  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  they  had  seen 
their  idol  shattered  beyond  all  hope  of  repair,  and 
were  as  hopeless  and  helpless  as  were  the  Philis- 
tines when  they  found  their  god  Dagon  flat  upon 
his  face  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord. 

In  order,  however,  to  make  some  show  of  re- 
sistance to  the  overwhelming  ruin  which  had  over- 
taken them,  they  raised  in  the  Senate  the  cry  of 
"  repeal,"  which  was  feebly  echoed  by  a  few  coun- 
try journals  of  their  faith.  But  it  very  soon  be- 
came apparent  that,  with  the  greatest  possible 
success,  there  could  be  no  repeal  in  less  than  seven 
years.  In  that  time  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  would  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as 
slave  States,  and  the  slave  power  fortified  in  its 
control  of  the  Government.  So  this  cry  of  repeal 
soon  died  away,  like  the  bleating  of  innocent 


*  The  wonderful  increase  of  the  antislavery  vote  in  1855  and 
1856  was  brought  about  by  the  illegal  assaults  of  the  slave  power 
upon  the  citizens  of  Kansas.  The  figures  in  New  England  and 
New  York  from  1848  to  1854  are  here  given.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  fall  elections  of  1854  were  little  influenced  by  the  re- 
peal of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

New  England.  New  York. 

1848 72,368 120,479 

1849 79,454 1,311 

1850 42,270 3,410 

1851 43,401 000 

1852 57,143 25,359 

1853 63,668 000 

(Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.) 

1854 79,632 000 


FOLLY  OF  ATTEMPTED  REPEAL.        21 

lambs  after  the  wolves  have  broken  down  the  bar- 
riers of  the  sheepfold.  The  Free-soil  politicians 
proposed  no  other  plan  of  resistance  by  voice  or 
pen. 

"As  they  drifted  on  their  path, 

There  \vas  silence  deep  as  death ; 
And  the  boldest  held  his  breath 
For  a  time." 

But  although  the  majority  of  the  Free-soil 
party  made  and  adhered  to  that  organization  for 
selfish  motives,  which  had  little  or  no  reference  to 
antislavery,  there  were  many  of  its  rank  and  file, 
and  some  of  its  leaders,  true  to  principle.  Such 
were  Salmon  P.  Chase,  John  P.  Hale,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  Charles  Sumner,  Charles  Allen, 
and  Henry  Wilson.  But  among  the  supporters  of 
Taylor  in  1848  there  were  thousands  of  influen- 
tial leaders,  much  more  practical,  while  no  less 
opposed  to  slavery.  Examples  of  this  kind  were 
Horace  Greeley,  William  H.  Seward,  Thurlow 
Weed,  Kobert  C.  Winthrop,  and  Abbott  Lawrence. 
These  were  quite  as  earnest  advocates  of  the  leg- 
islative restriction  of  slavery  as  any  of  the  Free- 
soilers.  They  were  all  for  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union,  and  hostile  to  anarchy,  in  whatever 
form,  or  under  whatever  disguises.  They  sought 
to  restrain  slavery  in  a  legal  and  fair  way,  but 
were  entirely  powerless  to  accomplish  their  pur- 
pose, though  they  struggled  for  it  bravely  for 
many  years. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs,  what  was  there  left 
upon  which  the  North  could  base  any  hope  of 


22  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

effectual  resistance  to  the  spread  and  perpetuity 
of  slavery  ?  Every  effort  of  politicians  to  restrict, 
and  every  effort  of  Abolitionists  to  extinguish  it, 
had  only  given  it  greater  strength  for  the  pres- 
ent, and  better  security  for  the  future.  Had  the 
Southern  leaders  been  content  to  leave  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  undisturbed,  and  simply  to  open 
the  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  settle- 
ment, their  cherished  cause  would  have  been  se- 
cure. These  Territories  would  have  been  speedily 
settled  by  a  pro-slavery  population,  and,  after  ad- 
mission to  the  Union,  could  easily  have  changed 
their  Constitutions  to  suit  the  wishes  of  slave-hold- 
ers. Or,  they  could  have  relied  upon  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court — soon  to  come  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case — that  slavery  could  not  be  constitution- 
ally restricted  by  Congress.  In  either  case  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  unite  the  Whig  and  Dem- 
ocratic parties  of  the  North  to  make  these  Terri- 
tories free.  Both  would  have  submitted  quietly  to 
any  legal  and  apparently  fair  process  of  extending 
slavery,  rather  than  to  endanger  the  union  of  the 
States. 

But  the  South,  stimulated  unreasonably  by  her 
former  success,  ventured  foolishly  to  overthrow  a 
time-honored  compact,  and  subject  herself  to  a 
charge  of  bad  faith.  In  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  she  illustrated  the  words  of  the  sacred 
writer :  "  Pride  goeth  before  destruction,  and  a 
haughty  spirit  before  a  fall."  By  this  act  she  had 
made  it  possible  to  combine  all  political  parties  in 
the  North  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  should 


THE  PLAN  OF  FREEDOM.  23 

the  right  method  of  doing  this  great  work  be  well 
presented  and  faithfully  urged.     All  were  ready! 
now  to  rebuke  the  arrogance  of  slavery,  and  also 
to  end  its  existence,  if  that  could  be  done  in  ac-/ 
cordance  with  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.       / 

Fortunately  a  feasible  plan  for  this  work  had 
been  prepared  and  carried  to  theoretical  perfection 
months  before  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  re- 
pealed, and  in  anticipation  of  that  event — I  mean 
the  plan  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 

During  the  winter  of  1854  I  was,  for  the  second 
time,  a  Kepresentative  from  Worcester  in  the  Leg- 
islature of  Massachusetts.  I  had  felt  to  some  de- 
gree the  general  alarm  in  anticipation  of  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  but  not  the 
depression  and  despondency  that  so  affected  others 
who  regarded  the  cause  of  liberty  as  hopelessly 
lost.  As  the  winter  wore  away  I  began  to  have  a 
conviction  which  came  to  be  ever  present,  that 
something  must  be  done  to  end  the  domination  of 
slavery.  I  felt  a  personal  responsibility,  and 
though  I  long  struggled  to  evade  the  question, 
I  found  it  to  be  impossible.  I  pondered  upon  it 
by  day,  and  dreamed  of  it  by  night.  By  what 
plan  could  this  great  problem  be  solved?  "What 
force  could  be  effectively  opposed  to  the  power 
that  seemed  about  to  spread  itself  over  the  conti- 
nent? 

After  much  and  very  careful  study,  I  concluded 
that  if  this  work  could  be  done  at  all,  it  must  be 
done  by  an  entirely  new  organization,  depending 
for  success  upon  methods  never  before  applied. 


24  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

This  was  an  organized  emigration,  guided  and 
guarded  by  a  responsible  business  company,  whose 
capital  should  precede  the  emigrants,  and  prepare 
the  way  for  them  by  such  investments  as  should 
be  best  calculated  to  secure  their  comfort  and  pro- 
tection. This  emigration  must  also  be  of  a  kind 
before  unknown,  since  it  must,  in  this  case,  be  self- 
sacrificing  and  voluntary,  whereas  all  historical 
migrations  had  been  either  forced  or  self-seeking. 
To  present  this  new  method  of  bringing  two 
hostile  civilizations  face  to  face  upon  the  disputed 
prairies  of  Kansas  in  such  a  way  as  to  unite  in  its 
support  the  entire  Northern  people  of  whatever 
parties,  was  the  work  next  to  be  done.  On  this 
appeal  must  depend  the  future  of  our  country. 
Then  arose  the  important  question,  Was  it  possible 
to  create  such  an  agency  to  save  Kansas  ?  I  be- 
lieved the  time  for  such  a  noble  and  heroic  devel- 
opment had  come ;  but  could  hope  be  inspired,  and 
the  pulsations  of  life  be  started  beneath  the  ribs  of 
death  ?  The  projected  plan  would  call  upon  men 
to  risk  life  and  property  in  establishing  freedom  in 
Kansas.  They  would  be  called  to  pass  over  mill- 
ions of  acres  of  better  land  than  any  in  the  dis- 
puted Territory  was  supposed  to  be,  land  in  com- 
munities where  peace  and  plenty  were  assured,  to 
meet  the  revolver  and  the  bowie-knife  defending 
slavery  and  assailing  freedom.  Could  such  men 
be  found,  they  would  certainly  prove  themselves 
to  be  the  very  highest  types  of  Christian  man- 
hood, much  above  all  other  emigrants.  Could  such 
men  be  found  ? 


PLAN  ANNOUNCED  IN   WORCESTER.  25 

It  happened  that  on  the  evening  of  the  llth  of 
March,  1854,  there  was  a  large  meeting  in  the  City 
Hall  in  Worcester,  to  protest  against  the  passage  of 
the  Kansas  -  Nebraska  Bill  and  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  I  attended  the  meeting,  and 
not  having  yet  taken  counsel  of  any  one,  deter- 
mined to  see  how  the  plan  would  be  received  by 
an  intelligent  New  England  audience  without  any 
preparation  for  the  announcement.  Accordingly, 
making  the  last  speech  of  the  evening,  I  for  the 
first  time  disclosed  the  plan.  The  Worcester  Spy 
of  March  13th  has  the  conclusion  of  my  speech,  as 
follows : 

"It  is  time  now  to  think  of  what  is  to  be  done  in  the  event  of 
the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  Now  is  the  time  to 
organize  an  opposition  that  will  utterly  defeat  the  schemes  of 
the  selfish  men  who  misrepresent  the  nation  at  Washington. 
Let  every  effort  be  made,  and  every  appliance  be  brought  to  bear, 
to  fill  up  that  vast  and  fertile  Territory  with  free  men — with 
men  who  hate  slavery,  and  who  will  drive  the  hideous  thing 
from  the  broad  and  beautiful  plains  where  they  go  to  raise  their 
free  homes.  [Loud  cheers.] 

' '  I  for  one  am  willing  to  be  taxed  one-fourth  of  my  time  or  of 
my  earnings  until  this  be  done — until  a  barrier  of  free  hearts 
and  strong  hands  shall  be  built  around  the  land  our  fathers  con- 
secrated to  freedom,  to  be  her  heritage  forever.  [Loud  cheers.]" 

If  instead  of  this  impetuous,  spontaneous,  and  en- 
thusiastic response  there  had  been  only  a  moderate 
approbation  of  the  plan,  the  country  would  never 
have  heard  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company.  I  did 
not  expect  that  all  who  applauded  would  go  to 
Kansas,  or  even  that  any  of  them  would  go,  but 
I  knew  that  whatever  a  New  England  audience 


36  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

would  applaud  in  that  manner  I  could  find  men  to 
perform.  There  was  no  more  doubt  in  my  mind 
from  that  time. 

Without  further  delay  I  drew  up  the  charter  of 
the  "Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company,"  and 
by  personal  solicitation  secured  the  corporators.  I 
introduced  the  matter  in  the  Legislature  and  had  it 
referred  to  the  committee  on  the  judiciary,  of  which 
James  D.  Colt,  afterwards  a  justice  of  the  State  Su- 
preme Court,  was  chairman.  At  the  hearing  I  ap- 
peared before  the  committee  and  said  in  behalf  of 
the  petition : 

"TLis  is  a  plan  to  prevent  the  forming  of  any  more  slave 
States.  If  you  will  give  us  the  charter  there  shall  never  be  an- 
other slave  State  admitted  into  the  Union.  In  the  halls  of  Con- 
gress we  have  been  invariably  beaten  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
and  it  is  now  time  to  change  the  battle-ground  from  Congress  to 
the  prairies,  where  we  .shall  invariably  triumph." 

Mr.  Colt  replied : 

"We  are  willing  to  gratify  you  by  reporting  favorably  your 
charter,  but  we  all  believe  it  to  be  impracticable  and  utterly  fu- 
tile. Here  you  are  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  the  battle-ground, 
while  the  most  thickly  settled  portion  of  Missouri  lies  on  the 
eastern  border  of  Kansas,  and  can  in  one  day  blot  out  all  you 
can  do  in  a  year.  Neither  can  you  get  men  who  now  have 
peaceful  and  happy  homes  in  the  East  to  risk  the  loss  of  every- 
thing by  going  to  Kansas." 

But  Mr.  Colt  reported  in  favor  of  the  charter, 
and  it  passed,  though  it  cost  its  author  much  labor, 
for  not  one  member  either  of  the  Senate  or  House 
had  any  faith  in  the  measure. 

The  following  is  the  first  section  of  the  charter : 


COMPANY  CHARTERED.  27 

"SEC.  1.  Benjamin  C.  Clark,  Isaac  Livermore,  Charles  Allen, 
Isaac  Davis,  William  G.  Bates,  Stephen  C.  Phillips,  Charles  C. 
Hazewell,  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  Henry  Wilson,  James  S.  Whit- 
ney, Samuel  E.  Sewall,  Samuel  G.  Howe,  James  Holland,  Moses 
Kimball,  James  D.  Green,  Francis  W.  Bird,  Otis  Clapp,  Anson 
Burlingame,  Eli  Thayer,  and  Otis  Rich,  their  associates,  success- 
ors and  assigns,  are  hereby  made  a  corporation,  by  the  name  of 
the  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  emigrants  to  settle  in  the  West;  and  for  this  purpose, 
they  shall  have  all  the  powers  and  privileges,  and  be  subject  to 
all  the  duties,  restrictions,  and  liabilities,  set  forth  in  the  thirty- 
eighth  and  forty-fourth  chapters  of  the  Revised  Statutes. " 

The  charter  was  signed  by  the  Governor  on  the 
26th  of  April.  On  the  4th  of  May  a  meeting  was 
held  at  the  State-house,  by  the  corporators  and 
others,  and  a  committee  chosen  to  report  a  plan  of 
organization  and  work.  This  committee  consisted 
of  Eli  Thayer,  Alexander  H.  Bullock,  and  Edward 
E.  Hale  of  Worcester,  Richard  Hildreth  and  Otis 
Clapp  of  Boston.  They  made  a  report  at  an  ad- 
journed meeting  showing  the  proposed  operation 
of  the  enterprise,  from  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : 

"The  Emigrant  Aid  Company  has  been  incorporated  to  pro- 
tect emigrants,  as  far  as  may  be,  from  the  inconveniences  we 
have  enumerated.  Its  duty  is  to  organize  emigration  to  the  West 
and  bring  it  into  a  system.  This  duty,  which  should  have  been 
attempted  long  ago,  is  particularly  essential  now  in  the  critical 
position  of  the  Western  Territories. 

"The  Legislature  has  granted  a  charter,  with  a  capital  suf- 
ficient for  these  purposes.  This  capital  is  not  to  exceed  $5,000,- 
000.  In  no  single  year  are  assessments  to  a  larger  amount  than 
ten  per  cent,  to  be  called  for.  The  corporators  believe  that  if 
the  company  be  organized  at  once,  as  soon  as  the  subscriptions 
to  the  stock  amounts  to  $1,000,000,  the  annual  income  to  be  dc- 


28  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

rived  from  that  amount,  and  the  subsequent  subscriptions,  may 
be  so  appropriated  as  to  render  most  essential  service  to  the  em- 
igrants; to  plant  a  free  State  in  Kansas,  to  the  lasting  advantage 
of  the  country;  and  to  return  a  handsome  profit  to  the  stock- 
holders upon  their  investment. 

******* 

"To  accomplish  the  object  in  view  it  is  recommended,  1st, 
that  the  Directors  contract  immediately  with  some  one  of  the 
competing  lines  of  travel  for  the  conveyance  of  twenty  thousand 
persons  from  the  Northern  and  Middle  States,  to  that  place  in 
the  West  which  the  Directors  shall  select  for  their  first  settle- 
ment. 

"It  is  believed  that  passage  may  be  obtained,  in  so  large  a 
contract,  at  half  the  price  paid  by  individuals.  We  recommend 
that  emigrants  receive  the  full  advantage  of  this  diminution  in 
price,  and  that  they  be  forwarded  in  companies  of  two  hundred, 
as  they  apply,  at  these  reduced  rates  of  travel. 

"  2d.  It  is  recommended  that  at  such  points  as  the  Directors 
select  for  places  of  settlement,  they  shall  at  once  construct  a 
boarding-house  or  receiving-house,  in  which  three  hundred  per- 
sons may  receive  temporary  accommodation  on  their  arrival; 
and  that  the  number  of  such  houses  be  enlarged  as  necessity 
may  dictate.  The  new-comers  or  their  families  may  thus  be 
provided  for  in  the  necessary  interval  which  elapses  while  they 
are  making  their  selection  of  a  location. 

"3d.  It  is  recommended  that  the  Directors  procure  and  send 
forward  steam  saw-mills,  and  such  other  machines  as  shall  be  of 
constant  service  in  a  new  settlement,  which  cannot,  however,  be 
purchased  or  carried  out  conveniently  by  individual  settlers. 
These  machines  may  be  leased  or  run  by  the  company's  agents. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  desirable  that  a  printing-press  be  sent  out, 
and  a  weekly  newspaper  established.  This  would  be  the  organ 
of  the  company's  agents;  would  .extend  information  regarding 
its  settlement;  and  be  from  the  very  first  an  index  of  that  love 
of  freedom  and  of  good  morals  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  may 
characterize  the  State  now  to  be  formed. 

"4th.  It  is  recommended  that  the  company's  agents  locate 
and  take  up  for  the  company's  benefit  the  sections  of  land  in 
which  the  boardiug-houses  and  mills  are  located,  and  no  others 


PLAN  OF  OPERATION.  29 

And  further,  that  whenever  the  Territory  shall  be  organized  as 
a  free  State,  the  Directors  shall  dispose  of  all  its  interests,  then 
replace,  by  the  sales,  the  money  laid  out,  declare  a  dividend  to 
the  stockholders,  and 

"5th.  That  they  then  select  a  new  field,  and  make  similar 
arrangements  for  the  settlement  and  organization  of  another 

free  State  of  this  Union. 

******* 

"Under  the  plan  proposed,  it  will  be  but  two  or  three  years 
before  the  company  can  dispose  of  its  property  in  the  Territory 
first  occupied,  and  reimburse  itself  for  its  first  expenses.  At 
that  time,  in  a  State  of  70,000  inhabitants,  it  will  possess  several 
reservations  of  640  acres  each,  on  which  are  boarding  -  houses 
and  mills,  and  the  churches  and  schools  which  it  has  rendered 
necessary.  From  these  centres  will  the  settlements  of  the  State 
have  radiated.  In  other  words,  these  points  will  then  be  the 
large  commercial  positions  of  the  new  State.  If  there  were  only 
one  such,  its  value,  after  the  region  should  be  so  far  peopled, 
would  make  a  very  large  dividend  to  the  company  which  sold  it, 
besides  restoring  the  original  capital  with  which  to  enable  it  to 

attempt  the  same  adventure  elsewhere. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"  It  is  recommended  that  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders  be 
called  on  the  first  Wednesday  in  June,  to  organize  the  company 
for  one  year,  and  that  the  corporators  at  this  time  make  a  tem- 
porary organization,  with  power  to  obtain  subscriptions  to  the 
stock  and  make  any  necessary  preliminary  arrangements. 

"ELi  THATER, 
"  For  tJie  Committee." 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  above  that  the  enterprise 
was  intended  to  be  a  money-making  affair  as  well 
as  a  philanthropic  undertaking.  The  fact  that  we 
intended  to  make  it  pay  the  investors  pecuniarily 
brought  upon  us  the  reproaches  and  condemnation 
of  some  of  the  Abolitionists,  at  least  one  of  whom 
declared  in  my  hearing  that  he  had  rather  give 
over  the  Territory  to  slavery  than  to  make  a  cent 


30  THE   KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

out  of  the  operation  of  saving  it  to  freedom.  In 
all  my  emigration  schemes  I  intended  to  make  the 
results  return  a  profitable  dividend  in  cash. 

In  pursuance  of  the  last  recommendation  of  the 
above  report,  the  corporators  made  a  temporary 
organization  by  the  choice  of  Eli  Thayer  as  presi- 
dent pro  tern.,  and  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Webb,  of  Boston, 
as  secretary,  and  opened  books  of  subscription  in 
Boston,  Worcester,  and  New  York. 

The  capital  stock  of  the  Massachusetts  company 
was  originally  fixed  at  $5,000,000,  from  which  it 
was  proposed  to  collect  an  assessment  of  four  per 
cent,  for  the  operations  of  1854  as  soon  as  81,000,- 
000  had  been  subscribed.  Books  for  stock  subscrip- 
tions were  opened  and  the  undertaking  was  fairly 
started.  I  felt  confident  that  even  a  few  colonies 
from  the  North  would  make  the  freedom  of  Kansas 
a  necessity ;  for  the  whole  power  of  the  free  States 
would  be  ready  to  protect  their  sons  in  that  Territory. 

I  at  once  hired  Chapman  Hall  in  Boston,  and  be- 
gan to  speak  day  and  evening  in  favor  of  the  enter- 
prise. I  also  addressed  meetings  elsewhere,  and 
labored  in  every  possible  way  to  make  converts  to 
my  theory.  One  day  I  met  a  party  of  clergymen 
in  the  study  of  Theodore  Parker ;  on  the  next  an- 
other party  in  the  study  of  Kev.  Dr.  Lothrop.  I 
met  merchants  in  their  counting-rooms,  and  busi- 
ness men  upon  the  streets,  and  urged  their  attend- 
ance at  «the  Chapman  Hall  meetings.  Thus,  with 
the  help  of  the  Boston  press,  led  by  the  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser, there  began  to  be  some  interest  in  the  plan 
to  save  Kansas. 


NEW  PLAN  AND  NEW  ARGUMENTS.  31 

Not  only  was  a  new  plan  proposed,  but  it  was 
advocated  by  new  arguments,  some  points  of  which 
•were  as  follows : 

The  present  crisis  was  to  decide  whether  free- 
dom or  slavery  should  rule  our  country  for  cen- 
turies to  come.  That  slavery  was  a  great  national 
curse ;  that  it  practically  ruined  one-half  of  the  na- 
tion and  greatly  impeded  the  progress  of  the  other 
half.  That  it  was  a  curse  to  the  negro,  but  a  much 
greater  curse  to  the  white  man.  It  made  the  slave- 
holders petty  tyrants  who  had  no  correct  idea  of 
themselves  or  of  anybody  else.  It  made  the  poor 
whites  of  the  South  more  abject  and  degraded  than 
the  slaves  themselves.  That  it  was  an  insurmount- 
able obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  nation's  progress 
and  prosperity.  That  it  must  be  overcome  and  ex- 
tirpated. That  the  way  to  do  this  was  to  go  to 
the  prairies  of  Kansas  and  show  the  superiority  of 
free  labor  civilization ;  to  go  with  all  our  free  labor 
trophies :  churches  and  schools,  printing  -  presses, 
steam-engines,  and  mills ;  and  in  a  peaceful  contest 
convince  every  poor  man  from  the  South  of  the 
superiority  of  free  labor.  That  it  was  much  better 
to  go  and  do  something  for  free  labor  than  to  stay 
at  home  and  talk  of  manacles  and  auction-blocks 
and  blood-hounds,  while  deploring  the  never-end- 
ing aggressions  of  slavery.  That  in  this  contest 
the  South  had  not  one  element  of  success.  We 
had  much  greater  numbers,  much  greater  wealth, 
greater  readiness  of  organization,  and  better  facil- 
ities of  migration.  That  we  should  put  a  cordon 
of  free  States  from  Minnesota  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexi- 


32  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

co,  and  stop  the  forming  of  slave  States.  After 
that  we  should  colonize  the  northern  border  slave 
States  and  exterminate  slavery.  That  our  work 
was  not  to  make  women  and  children  cry  in  anti- 
slavery  conventions,  by  sentimental  appeals,  BUT  TO 

GO  AND  PUT  AN  END  TO  SLAVERY. 

The  census  of  the  United  States  was  my  text- 
book and  the  basis  of  my  appeals.  My  themes 
were  the  commercial,  industrial,  and  economic  dis- 
advantages of  slavery.  These  arguments  were  ef- 
fective with  the  Northern  people.  Such  interests,  in 
the  Civil  "War,  more  than  any  pity  for  the  African, 
impelled  the  "West  to  fight  for  the  outlet  of  the 
Mississippi  River. 

In  elucidating  this  plan  to  save  Kansas,  Profess- 
or Spring,  in  his  History,  page  28,  says : 

"Early  in  the  summer  of  1854  rumors  that  powerful  capital- 
ized societies  were  forming  in  New  England  for  the  purpose  of 
sending  antislavery  colonies  to  Kansas  alarmed  the  people  of 
western  Missouri,  and  suggested  doubts  whether  the  repeal  of 
the  old  restrictive  Compromise  legislation  would  eventually 
prove  as  fortunate  for  their  interests  as  they  dreamed.  They 
had  looked  upon  Kansas  as  an  easy,  inevitable  prey,  a  likelihood 
almost  universally  conceded  throughout  the  Northern  States. 
'  The  fate  of  Kansas  was  sealed,'  said  the  Liberator  of  July  13, 
1855,  '  the  very  day  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  repealed.' 

"In  the  midst  of  general  despondency  it  occurred  to  Eli 
Thayer,  of  "Worcester,  Massachusetts,  that  the  public  had  mis- 
read the  situation ;  that  apparent  disasters  were  only  successes 
disguised  ;  that  the  calamities  befallen  the  antislavery  cause  in 
Congress  might  be  retrieved  by  tactics  of  organized  emigration 
— a  contest  in  which  the  Southern  oligarchy,  much  cumbered 
and  heavily  shod,  could  not  cope  with  freedom  in  its  nimbler 
movements.  While  the  Congressional  struggle  was  in  progress, 
before  the  fate  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  had  been  settled,  he 


THE  WORK  BEGUN.  33 

wrote  out  a  Constitution  for  the  '  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Com- 
pany, '  and  procured  a  legislative  charter.  Thayer  originally  con- 
templated a  formidable  corporation,  with  a  capital  of  five  million 
dollars,  by  which  he  expected  to  control  migration  —  the  vast 
Westering  flux  of  natives  as  well  as  foreigners — in  the  interests 
of  liberty;  to  marshal  it  against  the  encroachments  of  the  South; 
to  secure  the  Territories  in  the  first  place,  and  then  turn  his 
revolutionizing  agencies  upon  the  slave  States  themselves.  .  .  . 

"Abolitionists  repudiated  expedients  of  colonization  as  'false 
in  principle,'  and  able  to  compass  at  best  only  'a  transplanted 
Massachusetts'  —  a  futile  and  unworthy  consummation,  since 
even  '  the  original  Massachusetts  had  been  tried  and  found  want- 
ing.'" .  .  . 

At  the  close  of  one  of  my  meetings  in  Boston,  a 
man  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  arose  and  announced  his 
intention  of  subscribing  ten  thousand  dollars  tow- 
ards the  capital  stock  of  the  company.  This  was 
John  M.  S.  Williams,  of  Cambridgeport,  who  was 
afterwards  prominently  connected  with  the  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company.  Charles  Francis  Adams  came 
forward  with  a  subscription  of  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  others  followed.  It  was  at  one  of  the 
Chapman  Hall  meetings  that  I  first  saw  Charles 
Robinson  (afterwards  Governor  of  Kansas),  and  en- 
gaged him  to  act  as  agent  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company.  A  wiser  and  more  sagacious  man  for 
this  work  could  not  have  been  found  within  the 
borders  of  the  nation.  By  nature  and  by  training 
he  was  perfectly  well  equipped  for  the  arduous 
work  before  him.  A  true  democrat  and  a  lover  of 
the  rights  of  man,  he  had  risked  his  life  in  Califor- 
nia while  defending  the  poor  and  weak  against  the 
cruel  oppression  of  the  rich  and  powerful.  He  was 
willing  at  any  time,  if  there  were  need,  to  die  for 
2* 


34  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

his  principles.  In  addition  to  such  brave  devotion 
to  his  duty,  he  had  the  clearest  foresight,  and  the 
coolest,  calmest  judgment  in  determining  the  course 
of  action  best  adapted  to  secure  the  rights  of  the 
free  State  settlers.  No  one  in  Kansas  was  so  much 
as  he  the  man  for  the  place  and  time.  He  was  a 
deeper  thinker  than  Atchison,  and  triumphed  over 
the  border  ruffians  and  the  more  annoying  and 
more  dangerous  self-seekers  of  his  own  party.  The 
man  who  "  paints  the  lily  and  gilds  refined  gold  " 
is  just  the  one  to  tell  us  how  Charles  Robinson 
might  have  been  better  qualified  for  his  Kansas 
work.  But  his  character,  so  clearly  defined  in 
freedom's  greatest  struggle,  superior  to  the  help 
or  harm  of  criticism,  reveals  these  salient  points 
of  excellence — majesty  of  mind  and  humility  of 
heart,  stern  justice  and  tender  sympathy,  heroic 
will  and  sensitive  conscience,  masculine  strength 
and  maidenly  modesty,  leonine  courage  and  wom- 
anly gentleness,  with  power  to  govern  based  on 
self-restraint,  and  love  of  freedom  deeper  than  love 
of  life. 

"With  such  a  man  at  the  head  of  the  free  State 
cause  in  Kansas,  it  is  not  strange  that  I  felt  no  un- 
easiness about  its  management.  I  never  troubled 
him  with  letters  of  advice  about  Kansas  matters, 
which  he  was  in  a  position  to  understand  so  well. 
In  the  three  years'  conflict  very  few  letters  passed 
between  us.  He  never  knew  where  or  when  a  let- 
ter would  reach  me,  as  I  was  speaking  all  the  way 
from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Schuylkill,  and  from  the 
seaboard  to  the  lakes.  It  was  my  mission  to  raise 


CHAKLES  ROBINSON  AND   WIFE.  35 

men  and  money  for  the  security  of  freedom  in  the 
Territory,  and  to  combine  the  Northern  States  in 
this  work.  I  did  not  doubt  Eobinson's  ability  or 
fidelity  in  the  use  of  means. 

Fortunately  for  him  and  for  our  cause,  his  youth- 
ful wife  was  admirably  qualified  for  her  arduous 
and  responsible  position.  Mrs.  Sara  T.  L.  Eobin- 
son  was  the  daughter  of  Hon.  Myron  Lawrence, 
of  Belchertown,  Massachusetts,  a  prominent  Whig 
leader,  and  an  extreme  hater  of  the  disunion  fanat- 
ics, whom  he  decorated  with  the  name  of  "  Bobo- 
litionists." 

Entirely  devoted  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  Mrs. 
Robinson  brought  to  her  work  a  well-disciplined 
mind,  high  courage,  and  an  unconquerable  faith. 
She  was  an  inspiration  to  all  the  women  in  the 
Territory,  whom  she  influenced  by  her  ardent 
words  and  her  graceful  though  vigorous  pen.  Nor 
did  her  influence  stop  at  the  confines  of  the  field 
of  conflict  between  the  two  hostile  civilizations, 
but  extended  throughout  the  free  States.  In  1856 
she  published  a  most  entertaining  book,  replete 
with  charming  pictures  of  the  daily  life  of  our 
brave  pioneers,  and  of  the  thrilling  incidents  of  that 
most  exciting  period.  This  had  a  wide  circulation, 
and  was  a  very  efficient  aid  in  our  great  work.* 
By  such  services  in  the  pivotal  conflict,  the  namo 
of  Eobinson  has  become  illustrious. 


*  "Kansas:  Its  Interior  and  Exterior  Life."   Boston.    Crosby, 
Nichols  &  Company.     1856. 


CHAPTER    III. 


ALL  the  work  recorded  in  the  last  chapter  had 
been  done  before  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  passed 
the  Senate.  A  good  number  of  the  leading  citi- 
zens of  Boston  had  become  earnest  and  hopeful 
supporters  of  the  plan  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany. This  was  proof  to  me  that  by  a  judicious 
presentation  of  this  plan  in  other  places  a  sim- 
ilar co-operation  could  be  secured.  That  such 
help  should  be  obtained  without  delay  was  not 
only  desirable,  but  absolutely  necessary  to  our 
success.  After  careful  thought  upon  the  question, 
How  is  this  work  to  be  done?  I  determined  to 
suspend  my  Chapman  Hall  meetings  and  go  di- 
rectly to  New  York  City,  for  the  purpose  of  meet- 
ing some  of  the  leading  citizens  there,  and  induc- 
ing them,  if  possible,  to  organize  for  the  work  of 
saving  Kansas.  Accordingly,  I  left  Worcester  on 
the  evening  of  the  26th  of  May,  and  was  ready 
in  New  York  City  the  next  morning  to  enter 
upon  the  duties  of  my  self-imposed  mission.  On 
this  day  I  first  became  personally  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Greeley.  Before  that  time  I  had  mere- 
ly seen  him  several  times  while  on  his  lecturing 
tours,  and  had  heard  him  once  or  twice.  I  had 


1TR.  GREELEY  AT  HOME.  37 

now  come  from  Massachusetts  on  purpose  to  se- 
cure, if  possible,  the  great  influence  of  his  name 
and  of  the  New  York  Tribune  in  the  new  cru- 
sade of  freedom,  which,  during  the  preceding 
three  months,  I  had  successfully  begun  in  New 
England. 

As  I  had  never  been  in  New  York  before,  the 
Tribune  building  was  pointed  out  to  me,  in  answer 
to  my  inquiries.  I  climbed  the  narrow,  crooked, 
much -worn,  and  dusty,  not  to  say  dirty,  flights 
from  Spruce  Street  to  Mr.  Greeley's  sanctum. 
There,  in  a  very  small  room,  containing  two  old- 
fashioned,  straight-back  chairs,  and  a  very  high  and 
very  ancient  bureau,  sat  Mr.  Greeley,  using  the  lat- 
ter article  for  a  writing-desk.  The  top  of  this  bu- 
reau, except  a  very  small  space  at  one  corner,  was 
covered  with  papers,  both  manuscript  and  printed, 
in  utter  confusion.  These  had  been  pushed  back  so 
as  to  leave  a  clear  space  at  one  corner  large  enough 
to  hold  a  sheet  of  paper.  There  was  the  sheet  and 
Mr.  Greeley,  sitting  very  erect  (as  he  was  obliged 
to  do  to  have  his  eyes  above  the  paper),  writing 
upon  it.  I  at  once  introduced  myself,  and  said, 
"  Mr.  Greeley,  my  mission  to  New  York  is  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  the  great  influence  of  your 
name  and  paper  in  the  work  of  organizing  emigra- 
tion from  the  free  States  to  Kansas.''  Mr.  Greeley 
replied :  "  I  have  seen  some  accounts  in  the  papers 
of  your  movement,  but  I  confess  I  know  but  little 
about  it.  I  am  glad  to  see  you,  and  wish  to  know 
all  about  it,  also  your  plans  and  purposes,  and  upon 
what  reasons  you  base  your  hopes  of  success. 


38  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADR 

Now,  Mr.  Thayer,  sit  down  and  talk.  I  must  fin- 
ish this  editorial  under  my  hand,  but  do  not  mind 
my  writing.  I  shall  hear  every  word,  and  after 
this  paper  is  completed  I  will  give  you  my  entire 
attention  and  shall  make  many  inquiries."  This 
method  of  listening  to  talk  upon  one  subject  while 
writing  an  editorial  upon  another  and  entirely  dif- 
ferent one  was  quite  a  marvel  to  me,  and  at  first 
not  very  inspiring.  However,  I  proceeded  to  give 
a  full  account  of  my  last  three  months'  work,  and 
to  show  that  while  there  was  utter  hopelessness  in 
New  England  at  the  beginning  of  that  time,  there 
now  began  to  be  faith  and  hope,  and  that  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars  had  been  pledged  to  the  cause  at 
my  last  meeting ;  that  such  men  as  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  Hon.  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  Rev.  Edward  Beecher,  and  many  other  dis- 
tinguished Boston  men,  had  attended  some  of  my 
meetings,  and  had  expressed  the  belief  that  with 
sufficient  energy  we  could  achieve  success  in  Kan- 
sas, and  stop  the  making  of  slave  States  forever ; 
that  the  same  plan  applied  equally  well  to  the  old 
slave  States,  and  that  slavery,  thus  circumscribed, 
and  thereafter  invaded  in  its  old  home  by  free  la- 
bor, in  a  way  perfectly  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
and  the  Constitution,  would  soon  be  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  superior  power  of  freedom  and  become  ex- 
tinct. In  this  way  I  proceeded  for  an  hour  (Mr. 
Greeley  all  the  while  busy  with  his  pen),  and  re- 
counted the  facts  of  our  charter  having  been  grant- 
ed and  the  company  organized  under  it,  of  the 
plan  of  operations  reported  in  full,  and  of  the  inter- 


MY  TALK   WITH   HIM.  39 

est  in  the  movement  already  manifested  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Mr.  Greeley  called  for  a  boy  to  take 
the  copy  he  had  just  finished,  and  began  to  make 
inquiries  concerning  every  point  of  the  long  his- 
tory I  had  just  given  while  he  was  writing.  To 
my  perfect  amazement,  not  one  point  in  the  hour's 
talk  had  escaped  his  attention.  Not  one  man 
in  a  thousand,  giving  his  undivided  attention  to 
my  remarks,  would  have  had  so  complete  an  un- 
derstanding and  appreciation  of  all  that  had  been 
said. 

"  Now,  Thayer,"  said  Mr.  Greeley, "  the  first  ques- 
tion I  wish  to  ask  you  is  this :  Why  have  you  come 
to  me  ?"  To  this  I  replied :  "  My  coming  to  you  is 
no  accident,  but  the  result  of  careful  thought  and 
study.  There  are  several  reasons  for  it.  First,  be- 
cause you  are  a  Whig.  The  two  great  parties  in 
the  North  are  the  Whig  and  Democratic,  and  with- 
out their  co-operation  our  enterprise  must  be  a  fail- 
ure. The  Free-soil  party  is  feeble  in  numbers  and 
influence,  and  should  it  act  in  this  matter  without 
the  aid  of  the  two  great  national  parties  we  could 
count  on  nothing  but  defeat.  With  its  support 
alone  there  would  be  no  contest  whatever  in  Kan- 
sas, and  the  border  ruffians  of  Missouri  would  have 
everything  their  own  way.  For  this  reason  I  have 
put  among  the  corporators  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company  two  leading  Democrats  of  Massachusetts 
— Gen.  James  S.  Whitney  and  Col.  Isaac  Davis. 
Among  them  also  are  several  old  conservative 
Whigs,  but  not  one  Garrison  Abolitionist,  for  the 
reason  that  they  oppose  the  movement  and  will  try 


40  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

to  defeat  it  in  order  to  increase  the  disunion  senti- 
ment in  the  North  by  the  loss  of  Kansas.  Now,  if 
I  can  secure  the  leading  Whig  paper  in  the  coun- 
try, all  the  other  Whig  papers  in  the  North  will 
gladly  follow  its  lead.  I  wish  now  as  speedily  as 
possible  to  reach  the  Middle  and  Western  States, 
and  to  secure  their  immediate  organization  into 
Kansas  leagues  and  emigrant  aid  societies,  and  you 
know  well  enough  what  a  power  the  Weekly  Trib- 
une will  be  in  this  work.  We  cannot  afford  to 
lose  time.  The  Missourians  are  on  the  border  of 
Kansas,  and  it  is  necessary  to  our  success  that  the 
entire  North  be  aroused  at  once  and  put  into  active 
and  hopeful  work.  Your  paper  can  show  the  peo- 
ple that  there  is  a  chance  to  save  Kansas,  and  if 
they  are  once  convinced  of  this,  our  success  is  cer- 
tain. Nobody  in  the  North,  whether  Whig  or 
Democrat,  desires  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  all 
are  ready  to  circumscribe  and  annihilate  it  in  any 
legal  and  constitutional  way.  I  have  now  given 
you  one  reason.  There  is  another.  The  people 
believe  that  Horace  Greeley  is  an  honest,  far-seeing, 
and  patriotic  man.  That  name  alone  will  be  half 
a  victory.  You  are  the  one  man  now  needed. 
Should  you,  with  the  power  of  your  great  paper, 
oppose,  or  even  dubiously  approve,  this  grand 
movement,  our  cause  would  be  lost  and  Kansas  be 
doomed  to  chains  and  slavery.  This  is  the  crisis 
in  our  history,  and  right  here  it  is  to  be  determined 
whether  this  country  shall  be  all  slave  or  all  free. 
If  we  lose  Kansas  the  political  control  of  slavery 
is  assured  for  an  indefinite  period.  Now  is  the 


TALK  CONTINUED.  41 

time  for  you  to  use  the  power  God  has  given  you 
to  help  as  no  other  man  can  to  sa\Te  the  country 
and  the  cause  to  whose  interests  you  devote  your 
life.  I  know  your  character  and  your  history  well 
enough  to  feel  assured  of  your  cordial  and  power- 
ful aid." 

Mr.  Greeley  said :  "  There  is  much  truth  in  what 
you  have  said,  but  I  think  you  over-estimate  my 
power  in  the  matter.  But  do  you  not  think  the 
entire  Democratic  party  will  oppose?  It  looks 
to  me  as  if  Douglas  had  sold  Kansas  for  a  presi- 
dential nomination.  Will  not  the  Democrats  see 
that  the  goods  are  delivered  according  to  con- 
tract 2" 

To  which  I  replied :  "  Perhaps  a  few  of  the  North- 
ern Democratic  papers  will  mildly  oppose  us,  but 
they  dare  not  do  so  violently.  Democrats  and 
Whigs  alike  have  seen  enough  of  the  aggressive 
tendency  of  slavery.  On  this  subject  the  rank  and 
file  of  both  parties  are  with  us  as  surely  as  the  fee- 
ble Free-soilers.  You  will  find,  as  the  contest  pro- 
gresses, that  the  question  will  not  be  Whig  or  Dem- 
ocrat, but  Kansas  a  free  State  or  Kansas  a  slave 
State.  On  this  question  we  shall  have,  practically, 
the  entire  Northern  people  with  us,  without  dis- 
tinction of  party.  The  only  exception  will  be  the 
handful  of  Garrison  Abolitionists,  who  say :  '  There 
is  no  issue  but  disunion.  The  Nebraska  Bill  and 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  are  of  no  import  to  Aboli- 
tionists; we  strike  at  the  root  of  the  matter.' 
Their  purpose  is  to  destroy  the  union,  and  they 
know  very  well  that  our  plan  does  not  tend  tow- 


42  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ards  that  result.  We  may  therefore  safely  count 
on  their  opposition,  which  you  well  know  would  be 
far  less  harmful  to  us  than  their  support." 

"  Now,"  said  Mr.  Greeley,  "  have  you  any  papers 
which  I  can  read  this  evening,  showing  the  history 
of  this  movement  so  far  as  it  has  gone  ?"  I  then 
gave  him  the  Act  of  Incorporation  of  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company,  the  account  of  the  first  meeting  of 
the  corporators,  my  report  at  that  meeting  of  the 
plan  of  operations,  which  was  adopted,  and  the 
temporary  organization  of  the  company.  Mr.  Gree- 
ley then  said :  "  It  is  time  for  me  to  leave,  but  I 
want  you  to  come  and  lunch  with  me  to-morrow 
(Sunday)  at  one  o'clock,  and  I  shall  be  better  able 
then,  after  reading  these  papers,  to  examine  the 
whole  matter,  to  make  other  inquiries,  and  to  de- 
cide what  to  do." 

To  this  proposition  I  assented.  The  next  day  I 
met  him  as  appointed,  and  after  lunch  went  with 
him  to  his  loft  in  the  Tribune  building. 

lie  said,  when  seated  at  the  corner  of  his  old  bu- 
reau :  "  Excuse  me  a  few  minutes  while  I  write  a 
letter.  This  time  I  will  not  ask  you  to  talk  while 
I  write.  I  am  now  so  much  interested  in  the  emi- 
grant scheme  that  your  talk  will  distract  my  atten- 
tion too  much."  I  then  took  up  a  paper  and  waited 
for  the  completion  of  his  work.  But  he  did  not 
finish  it  without  interruption;  for  while  he  was 
writing,  a  boy  about  fifteen  years  old  came  into 
the  room,  and  standing  behind  Mr.  Greeley's  chair 
near  the  door,  said,  "Mr.  Greeley,  I  have  come  to 
ask  your  advice."  "  Say  on,"  without  stopping  his 


AN  INTERRUPTION.  43 

pen  or  oven  glancing  at  the  boy.  "  The  only  rela- 
tive I  have  here  is  my  sister.  I  have  been  boarding 
with  her,  and  she  let  me  have  board  so  cheap  that 
I  could  earn  money  enough  to  pay  her  and  have 
something  left  to  buy  my  clothes.  Now,  I  have 
quarrelled  with  my  sister  and  am  boarding  at  an- 
other place,  where  they  charge  me  all  I  can  earn 
for  my  board  (not  so  good  as  I  had  at  my  sister's), 
and  I  have  nothing  left  to  pay  for  clothes.  What 
shall  I  do  ?"  Mr.  Greeley,  without  looking  up  or 
stopping  his  pen,  asked,  "  Is  your  sister  a  married 
woman?"  "Yes,  sir."  "Is  she  a  respectable 
woman  ?"  "  Certainly,  sir."  "  Go  straight  to  your 
sister  and  tell  her  that  you  are  ashamed  of  your- 
self, and  ask  her  forgiveness.  If  she  will  take  you, 
go  back  and  live  with  her ;  and  after  this  remem- 
ber that  if  your  own  sister  is  not  your  friend  you 
will  not  be  likely  to  find  any  friend  in  New  York 
City."  The  boy  left  without  another  word.  Mr. 
Greeley  had  not  seen  him  and  had  not  stopped 
writing. 

When  the  boy  who  had  come  to  seek  friendly 
counsel  had  departed,  with  the  wise  but  imperative 
advice  of  the  great  philanthropist  ringing  in  his 
ears,  and  Mr.  Greeley  had  finished  his  letter,  he 
turned  to  me  and  said, "  I  am  now  ready  to  ex- 
amine further  the  emigration  scheme,  and  wish  to 
ask  you  several  questions." 

T.  "  First,  Mr.  Greeley,  allow  me  to  say  a  word 
about  what  has  just  occurred  in  this  room,  and 
about  what  is  now  going  on.  A  poor  boy  in  dis- 
tress comes  to  you  as  his  best  friend  and  adviser. 


44  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Though  a  stranger,  he  seeks  you  alone,  in  a  city  of 
several  hundred  thousand  people.  This  one  fact  is 
sufficient  proof  of  your  influence  at  home.  To 
secure  your  great  influence  in  the  Northern  States 
to  help  break  the  dominating  power  of  slavery  is 
the  mission  of  a  stranger  from  another  State.  1 
can  congratulate  you  upon  this  evidence  of  your 
power  and  upon  the  honor  these  applications  do 
you.  They  are  a  higher  compliment  than  I  have 
ever  before  seen  conferred  upon  any  one.  Now  I 
am  ready  for  any  questions  or  any  objections  that 
occur  to  you." 

G.  "  What  do  you  think  should  be  done  first  ?" 

T.  "  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  unfold  the  plan 
and  to  advocate  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  inspire  hope 
of  success  among  the  Northern  people.  As  soon  as 
they  have  any  hope  they  will  be  ready  for  action. 
At  present  the  North  is  utterly  disheartened.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  we  have  been  invariably 
beaten  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  Nothing  is  more 
common  than  the  expression  '  Slavery  has  always 
had  its  own  way  and  always  will  have  it.'  We 
now  propose  to  move  the  scene  of  this  contest 
from  Congress  to  the  prairies,  where  the  system  of 
free  labor  will  meet  the  system  of  slave  labor  face 
to  face.  If  we  can  unite  the  North  in  this  move- 
ment we  are  sure  to  triumph.  We  have  the  power, 
if  we  only  use  it,  and  we  shall  use  it  as  soon  as  we 
have  any  faith  in  securing  the  freedom  of  Kansas." 

G.  "  What  would  you  do  next  ?" 

T.  "Advocate  the  forming  of  Kansas  leagues  and 
emigrant  aid  companies  throughout  the  North. 


MR.  GREELEY'S  INQUIRIES.  45 

Begin  to  send  colonies.  Report  the  starting  and 
progress  of  every  colony.  Give  them  ovations,  as 
they  pass,  at  all  the  principal  places  on  the  route. 
Make  the  emigrants  feel  that  they  are  sure  to  be 
sustained  by  the  patriots  at  home.  Create  enthu- 
siasm where  now  there  is  only  despondency.  Our 
Boston  company  will  put  in  capital,  in  advance  of 
emigration,  so  that  shelter  and  many  other  com- 
forts, heretofore  unknown  to  pioneers,  will  be  ready 
in  Kansas  for  each  new  colony." 

G.  "Here  is  the  most  important  question  of 
all :  can  you  get  men  to  go  from  the  free  States  to 
Kansas,  in  view  of  the  great  sacrifices  they  will  be 
obliged  to  make,  risking  property,  peace,  and  even 
life  itself,  for  a  principle — I  might  say  for  patriot- 
ism? Remember  that  the  whole  power  of  the 
Government  is  against  you ;  that  Missouri,  crowd- 
ed with  border  ruffians,  is  on  the  entire  eastern 
border  of  Kansas,  that  your  emigrants  will  have 
a  very  long  journey  before  reaching  Kansas,  and 
more  than  three  hundred  miles  of  it  in  the  slave 
State  of  Missouri.  Can  all  these  difficulties  be 
overcome  ?" 

T.  "They  can  be  and  will  be.  "We  already 
have  a  number  of  men  pledged  for  our  first  colony. 
The  next  one  can  be  secured  with  far  less  effort. 
It  is  true  that  there  has  never  been  an  emigration 
of  this  kind  in  the  world's  history — a  self-sacrific- 
ing emigration.  It  is  now  time  for  this  new  devel- 
opment, and,  with  proper  effort,  it  can  be  made 
manifest  and  effective  in  saving  Kansas  and  de- 
stroying slavery.  The  people  of  the  North,  without 


46  TI1E  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

distinction  of  party,  hate  slavery  and  are  ready  to 
end  it  in  any  legal  and  constitutional  way.  They 
will  respond  to  the  call  of  principle  and  patriotism 
more  and  more  readily  as  they  see  the  movement 
progressing  and  a  chance  of  success  presented.  On 
this  matter  I  am  confident,  for  I  have  made  many 
speeches  upon  this  subject,  and  the  response  of  my 
hearers  has  been  all  I  could  desire.  Our  emigrants 
will  not  be  intimidated  by  border  ruffians,  nor  by 
all  the  powers  of  the  Government,  if  used  under 
the  restrictions  of  the  law  and  the  Constitution,  as 
they  must  be." 

G.  "  I  am  glad  you  have  some  proof  already  of 
what  the  people  are  willing  to  do,  but  will  they 
not  become  discouraged  in  case  the  slave-holders 
resort  to  open  violence  and  brutal  outrage  ?  What 
if  the  border  ruffians  of  Missouri  should  rush  into 
Kansas,  destroy  your  settlements,  and  murder  or 
drive  out  your  emigrants  ?" 

T.  "If  the  South  gives  us  fair  play  we  shall 
easily  beat  her  in  the  game  of  emigration ;  if  she 
gives  us  foul  play  we  shall  beat  her  all  the  more 
certainly,  though  the  struggle  may  be  longer  and 
more  severe.  To-day  she  has  incurred  the  bitter 
hostility  of  the  united  North  by  her  bad  faith; 
should  this  hostility  become  furious  rage,  incited 
by  abuse  or  murder  of  our  peaceful  colonies,  no 
man  in  his  senses  can  doubt  the  result.  Slavery 
will  go  down  and  freedom  will  triumph.  Demo- 
crats and  "Whigs  will  unite  throughout  the  North, 
and  nothing  on  the  continent  can  then  resist  their 
power." 


DISCUSSION  CONTINUED.  47 

G.  ""Will  the  Free -soil  politicians  take  the 
stump  and  aid  in  raising  the  colonies  ?" 

T.  "I  think  not.  They  have  said  so  many 
times  that  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
would  make  a  slave  State  of  Kansas,  that  they  may 
be  slow  to  believe  the  contrary  result  possible,  and 
may  feel  little  inclined  to  contradict  their  many- 
times-repeated  prophecies.  Besides,  they  would 
not  feel  confident  of  inspiring  any  hope  of  success 
after  such  a  record.  For  these  reasons  I  do  not 
expect  the  aid  of  the  politicians.  There  is  another 
reason  also.  They  have  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard the  action  of  Congress  as  the  only  thing  de- 
cisive about  slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  action 
we  propose  is  entirely  independent  of  Congress.  If 
we  can  put  into  Kansas  a  strong  majority  of  free 
State  men  and  keep  them  there,  Kansas  will  be  a 
free  State  whatever  Congress  may  do  or  fail  to  do. 
The  same  reasoning  will  apply  to  the  other  depart- 
ments of  the  Government." 

G.  "  I  think  I  have  a  very  good  understanding 
of  your  views  upon  the  whole  matter.  I  have 
given  it  much  thought,  and  I  have  full  faith  in  it. 
I  shall  call  it  the  Plan  of  Freedom,  and  advocate  it 
to  the  best  of  my  ability.  To-morrow's  Tribune 
will  give  some  proof  of  this." 

T.  "  Mr.  Greeley,  you  are  entitled  to  the  thanks 
of  every  patriot  for  your  decision.  With  deter- 
mined effort  on  our  part,  and  with  your  help  in 
arousing  and  uniting  the  Northern  people  in  this 
great  work,  I  feel  that  the  freedom  of  Kansas  is 
assured.  I  shall  return  to  Massachusetts  in  high 


48  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

hope,  and  in  the  month  of  July  the  Tribune  will 
record  the  passage  through  the  State  of  New  York 
of  the  pioneer  Kansas  colony." 

After  the  foregoing  conversation,  now  briefly  re- 
ported, I  remained  several  days  in  New  York,  and 
addressed  three  meetings  of  influential  citizens  call- 
ed together  by  written  invitations ;  one  in  the  par- 
lors of  the  Astor  House,  one  in  the  chapel  of  Colum- 
bia College,  and  another  in  the  lecture-room  of  the 
Tabernacle.  I  also  began  the  formation  of  an  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company  and  the  New  York  State  Kan- 
sas League.  I  saw  Mr.  Greeley  often,  and  in  each 
issue  of  the  Tribune  during  my  stay  he  made  such 
appeals  for  "The  Plan  of  Freedom"  as  only  he 
could  write.  These  appeals  were  quoted  very  wide- 
ly, and  the  entire  "Whig  press  of  the  Northern  States 
at  once  enlisted  in  the  enterprise  with  great  in- 
tensity of  zeal,  inspired  by  the  high  hope,  sublime 
faith,  and  eloquent  arguments  of  Horace  Greeley. 
Kansas  Leagues  began  at  once  to  be  formed  in  the 
Middle  and  Western  States ;  and  as  the  great  strug- 
gle progressed  in  Kansas  many  of  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  two  great  political  parties  in  the  free  States 
drew  nearer  and  nearer  together,  until  they  finally 
met  and  were  consolidated  in  the  Republican  party. 
This  party,  deriving  its  life  and  strength  from  the 
Kansas  contest,  came  near  electing  Fremont  in  1856, 
and  did  elect  Lincoln  in  1860.  Below  are  some 
extracts  from  Mr.  Greeley's  editorials  above  re- 
ferred to. 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  May  29,  1854,  con- 
tained a  long  account  of  the  organization  and 


MR.  GREELEY  SUPPORTS  MY  VIEWS.       49 

purpose  of  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany, with  the  charter  and  report  of  the  commit- 
tee printed  in  full.  The  following  is  an  extract 
from  Mr.  Greeley's  editorial  comment : 

"  Such,  in  brief,  is  the  plan  offered  to  the  earnest  and  philan- 
thropic men  of  the  free  States  who  desire  to  prevent  the  spread 
of  slavery  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  and  to  secure  the  early  ad- 
mission of  those  Territories  into  the  Union  as  free  States.  To 
all  those  who  are  anxious  to  do  something  in  the  present  crisis 
to  repair  the  wrong  just  committed  at  Washington,  it  offers  a 
wide  and  hopeful  field  of  effort.  Here  is  abundant  opportunity 
for  all  who  have  money  to  invest  or  a  heart  to  labor  in  the  great 
cause  of  freedom.  The  scheme  strikes  us  as  singularly  well 
adapted  to  secure  the  objects  in  view.  Properly  managed,  and 
in  the  hands  of  discreet  and  responsible  men,  it  cannot  fail  to  ac- 
complish the  noble  and  generous  purpose  at  which  it  aims,  and 
at  the  same  time  it  promises  to  eventually  return  to  every  con- 
tributor all  of  his  original  outlay,  with  a  handsome  recompense 
for  its  use.  From  this  plan,  thus  briefly  shadowed  forth,  we  en- 
tertain a  confident  hope  of  the  most  satisfactory  results,and  cord- 
ially commend  it  to  public  attention. 

"It  will  be  seen  that  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders  is  to  be 
held  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  June  in  Boston.  Meanwhile, 
subscriptions  can  be  made,  by  those  who  desire  to  do  so,  at  the 
office  of  this  paper,  either  by  letter  or  in  person.  The  co-opera- 
tion of  the  friends  of  the  enterprise  in  this  city  is  earnestly  de- 
sired, and  a  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  is  now  here  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  it." 

This  was  followed  by  a  series  of  powerful  edito- 
rials, which  fully  unfolded  the  new  Plan  of  Free- 
dom, as  Mr.  Greeley  called  it,  and  set  forth  its 
merits  in  a  forcible  and  convincing  manner,  urging 
the  formation  of  emigrant  societies  throughout  the 
North. 

In  the  Tribune  of  May  30th  he  said : 
3 


50  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"The  Plan  of  Freedom  set  forth  in  yesterday's  Tribune  has 
been  eagerly  seized  upon  by  some  of  our  best  and  most  distin- 
guished citizens,  and  a  private  preliminary  meeting  will  be  im 
mediately  held  in  furtherance  of  its  suggestions.  .  .  . 

"  The  organization  of  a  powerful  association  of  large  capital 
in  the  aid  of  human  freedom  is  a  step  in  a  new  direction  of  phil- 
anthropic effort,  which  may  well  enlist  the  sympathies  of  the 
unselfish  and  benevolent  not  only  of  this  country  but  of  all 
mankind. 

"  In  view  of  the  monstrous  wrongs  that  slavery  is  at  this  hour 
meditating,  in  view  of  the  enormity  it  has  just  perpetrated,  the 
heart  of  every  man  who  has  one  spark  of  humanity  in  his  bosom 
must  be  stirred,  as  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  by  the  suggest- 
ion of  a  remedy  so  simple,  so  comprehensive, and  so  practical.  .  .  . 

"The  great  labors  of  the  world  have  been  performed  by  associ- 
ation. Our  societies  for  the  spread  of  the  Bible  and  the  diffusion 
of  Christianity,  and  our  other  varied  combinations  for  benevo- 
lent objects,  all  demonstrate  the  immense  power  of  well-direct- 
ed associative  effort." 

From  the  Tribune  of  May  31, 1854: 

"The  Plan  of  Freedom,  which  we  put  forth  in  Monday's  pa- 
per, already  awakens  an  echo  in  the  public  mind.  In  addition 
to  further  active  steps  of  the  gentlemen  in  the  city  who  have 
taken  hold  of  the  subject,  we  have  received  voluntary  offers  of 
subscription  by  letter,  together  with  the  most  fervent  expressions 
of  zeal  and  determination  from  all  quarters  to  rally  in  defence  of 
freedom, and  in  opposition  to  the  gigantic  schemes  of  aggression 
started  by  the  Slave  Power.  The  contest  already  takes  the  form 
of  the  people  against  tyranny  and  slavery.  The  whole  crowd  of 
slave-drivers  and  traitors,  backed  by  a  party  organization,  a  cor- 
rupt majority  in  Congress,  a  soulless  partisan  press,  and  admin- 
istration with  its  paid  officers  armed  with  revolvers  and  sustained 
by  the  bayonets  of  a  mercenary  soldiery,  will  all  together  prove 
totally  insufficient  to  cope  with  an  aroused  people. 

"We  extract  from  our  correspondence  as  follows: 

'"To  the  Editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune  : 

"'Having  watched  with  much  interest  the  incipient  move- 
ments in  Massachusetts  to  form  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  and 


LETTERS  TO  MR.  GREELEY.  51 

having  great  faith  in  such  an  enterprise,  if  confided  to  proper 
hands,  I  am  much  gratified  to  find  by  your  paper  of  this  day  that 
the  organization  is  so  far  completed  as  to  admit  the  opening  of 
subscriptions.  Wishing  to  aid  the  enterprise  out  of  my  feeble 
ability,  I  request  you  to  insert  my  name  in  the  subscription  for 

five  hundred  dollars  ($500) 

"  '  The  day  of  deliverance  dawns.  The  spirit  of  freedom  shall 
awake.  Yours  for  Liberty.' 

"Another  correspondent, who  sends  a  subscription  for  $10,000, 
writes  as  follows: 

"  '  Need  I  say  how  delighted  I  am  at  the  prospect  of  the  "Plan 
of  Freedom?"  In  a  work  so  hopeful,  so  just,  so  grandly  compre- 
hensive, so  prophetic  of  results  potential,  victorious,  and  final,  I 
enter  with  a  full  soul,  heart,  hand,  and  purse;  and  sink  or  swim, 
live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,  I  give  myself  to  this  great  work,  in 
the  full  confidence  that  souls  are  here  enlisted  who  know  no  tie 
but  that  of  universal  brotherhood,  no  end  but  that  of  unselfish 
devotion  to  common  humanity.  May  I  ask  of  you  the  favor  to 
hand  in  my  subscription  for  one  hundred  shares  of  stock  of  the 
Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company?  The  golden  age — the 
blessed  age  of  peace — is  not  for  us!  Patience  and  faith, and  com- 
bat, labor,  and  toil,  are  ours.  Let  us  accept  the  gifts  meekly  but 
manfully,  rejoicing  that  our  Master  counts  us  worthy  to  follow 
him  in  the  mighty  travail  of  a  world's  regeneration.' " 

From  the  New  York  Tribune  of  June  1, 1854 : 

"THE  PLAN  OF  FREEDOM. — The  friends  of  this  measure  who 
have  had  the  subject  in  hand  held  a  meeting  at  the  Astor  House 
last  evening,  at  which  President  King,  of  Columbia  College,  pre- 
sided. There  was  quite  a  full  attendance  of  gentlemen,  who  felt 
a  deep  interest  in  the  subject.  A  committee  was  appointed  to 
superintend  the  business  of  obtaining  subscriptions,  and  to  rep- 
resent the  subscribers  in  the  meeting  of  the  society  to  be  held  in 
Boston  on  Wednesday  next.  .  .  . 

"  We  are  in  receipt  of  additional  letters,  making  inquiries  and 
tendering  further  subscription.  The  plan  is  received  by  all  with 
pre-eminent  favor,  and  enlists  the  warmest  sympathies  of  the 
friends  of  freedom.  .  . .  The  plan  is  no  less  than  to  found  free 
cities  and  to  extemporize  free  States.  Let  it  be  made  the  great 
enterprise  of  the  age." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     WORK     BEGUN. CHAEITY    VS.    BUSINESS     IN    MIS- 
SIONARY  ENTEEPEISE. 

HAVING  now  secured  the  invaluable  aid  of  Mr. 
Greeley,  and  additional  subscriptions  to  the  stock 
of  the  company,  so  that  the  whole  amount  pledged 
was  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars, I  returned  to  Boston.  While  I  had  been  away 
some  one  had  raised  a  danger-signal  where  there 
was  no  danger.  Some  one  had  decided  that  under 
our  charter  there  possibly  might  be  individual  lia- 
bility of  the  stockholders.  There  was  no  reason  for 
this  apprehension,  as  was  afterwards  admitted  by 
the  very  persons  who  used  the  argument,  and  who 
but  a  year  later  very  much  deplored  their  action. 
But  there  was  no  time  then  to  argue  the  question, 
for  we  were  ready  to  use  funds,  and  they  must  be 
had  without  delay,  as  the  first  colony  was  nearly 
ready  to  begin  its  journey  to  Kansas.  So  it  was 
arranged  that  the  business  of  the  company  should 
be  put  into  the  hands  of  three  trustees  until  the 
next  meeting  of  the  Legislature,  when  a  new  char- 
ter, adapted  to  the  views  of  the  Boston  subscribers, 
could  be  obtained. 

The  following,  from  Professor  Spring's  "Kan- 
sas," page  30,  gives  this  history  as  follows : 


PROFESSOR  SPRING'S  VIEWS.  53 

"No  organization  was  ever  effected  under  the  first  charter. 
It  saddled  objectionable  monetary  liabilities  upon  the  individ- 
uals who  might  associate  under  it,  and  was  abandoned.  The 
whole  business  then  passed  into  the  hands  of  Thayer,  Lawrence, 
and  J.  M.  S.  Williams,  who  were  constituted  trustees,  and  man- 
aged affairs  in  a  half-personal  fashion  until  February,  1855, when 
a  second  charter  was  obtained  and  an  association  formed  with  a 
slightly  rephrased  title — '  The  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany ' — and  with  John  Carter  Brown,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, as  president.  In  the  conduct  of  the  company,  the  trustees, 
who  bridged  the  interval  between  the  first  and  second  charters, 
continued  to  be  a  chief  directive  and  inspirational  force.  Mr. 
Thayer  preached  the  gospel  of  organized  emigration  with  tire- 
less and  successful  enthusiasm,  while  Mr.  Lawrence  discharged 
the  burdensome  but  all-important  duties  of  treasurer.  Among 
the  twenty  original  directors  were  Dr.  Samuel  Cabot,  Jr.,  John 
Lowell,  and  William  B.  Spooner,  of  Boston  ;  J.  P.  Williston, 
Northampton;  Charles  II.  Bigelow,  Lawrence;  and  Nathan  Dur- 
fee,  Fall  River.  The  list  of  directors  was  subsequently  enlarged 
to  thirty-eight,  and  included  the  additional  names  of  Dr.  S.  G. 
Howe,  Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Boston;  George  L.  Stearns, 
Medford;  Horace  Bushnell,  Hartford,  Connecticut;  Prof.  Benja-- 
min  Silliman,  Sr.,  New  Haven,  Connecticut;  and  Moses  H.  Grin- 
ncll,  New  York.  The  company  in  its  reorganized  shape  receded, 
at  least  temporarily,  from  all  wholesale  projects,  and  devoted  it- 
self to  the  problem  of  planting  free-labor  towns  in  Kansas."* 

*  The  following  is  a  full  list  of  officers  of  the  New  England 
Emigrant  Aid  Company: 

President:  John  Carter  Brown,  Providence  ;  Vice- Presidents: 
Eli  Thayer, Worcester,  J.  M.  S.Williams,  Cambridge;  Treasurer: 
Amos  A.  Lawrence,  Boston ;  Secretary :  Thomas  H.  Webb,  Bos- 
ton ;  Directors:  William  B.  Spooner,  Samuel  Cabot,  Jr.,  John 
Lowell,  C.  J.  Higginson,  Le  Baron  Russell,  Boston,  William  J. 
Rotch,  New  Bedford,  J.  P.  Williston,  Northampton,  W.  Dudley 
Pickman,  Salem,  R.  P.  Waters,  Beverly,  Reuben  A.  Chapman, 
Springfield,  John  Nesmith, Lowell, Charles  H. Bigelow, Lawrence, 
Nathan  Durfee,  Fall  River,  William  Willis,  Portland,  Me.,  Frank- 
lin Muzzy,  Bangor,  Me.,  Ichabod  Goodwin,  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
Thomas  M.  Edwards,  Keene,  N.  II.,  Albert  Day,  Hartford,  Conn. 


54  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Bryant  and  Gay's  "History  of  the  United  States," 
vol.  iv.,  p.  408,  has  the  following : 

"In  the  Eastern  States,  Eli  Thayer  conceived  the  organization 
of  emigration,  with  a  view  of  directing  it  to  Kansas.  On  the  20th 
of  April,  before  the  Nebraska  Act  passed  Congress,  he  and  his 
friends  were  incorporated  as  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid 
Company.  They  were  permitted  to  hold  a  capital  of  five  mill- 
ion dollars.  A  ready  exaggeration,  made  in  a  hostile  interest, 
announced  that  they  had  this  capital.  In  fact,  that  company 
had  not  collected  twenty  thousand  dollars  when  the  year  closed. 
But  the  fame  of  its  wealth  answered  the  purpose  as  well  as 
the  possession.  Undecided  men  were  willing  to  throw  in  their 
chances  where  an  organization  supposed  to  be  so  strong  led  the 
way.  The  glove  thrown  down  too  hastily  in  a  challenge  to  the 
Northern  emigrant  was  taken  up  on  the  instant.  In  the  last 
days  of  July,  as  soon  as  the  Territory  was  open  to  settlement, 
the  pioneer  party  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  took  up  claims 
at  a  point  now  known  as  Lawrence.  Before  winter,  this  com- 
pany had  sent  from  New  England  five  hundred  emigrants.  From 
other  free  States  had  poured  in  enough  more  to  make  a  popula- 
tion of  eight  thousand." 

It  is  true,  as  Mr.  Bryant  says,  that  the  books  of 
our  Boston  company,  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1854,  contained  the  names  of  only  five  hundred 
emigrants.  But  these  colonies  received  accessions 
all  the  way  from  Boston  to  Kansas,  so  that  often 
their  numbers  were  more  than  doubled — sometimes 
quadrupled. 

The  office  of  the  company  was  in  Boston.  Near- 
ly all  the  country  relied  upon  to  furnish  emigrants 
lies  between  Boston  and  Kansas.  The  emigrants 
from  Maine,  from  eastern  Massachusetts,  and  from 
the  southern  part  of  New  Hampshire  were,  for  the 
most  part,  registered  in  the  Boston  office,  and 


WORK  OF  THE  BOSTON  COMPANY.  55 

made  into  colonies  there.  These,  all  told,  were 
a  very  small  portion  of  the  number  that  went 
through  the  influence  of  this  company.  Hundreds 
of  Kansas  leagues  and  Kansas  committees  were 
formed,  through  the  assistance  and  example  of  the 
parent  organization,  in  all  the  Northern  States. 
I  lately  opened  a  file  of  the  New  York  Tribune 
for  1854.  In  the  issue  of  July  4th  I  find  an  account 
of  a  Kansas  emigration  society,  of  which  Cadwal- 
lader  Wallace  was  president,  organized  in  Koss 
County,  Ohio,  and  in  the  issue  of  July  10th  I  find 
an  account  of  our  own  Worcester  County  organiza- 
tion, of  which  Alexander  H.  Bullock  was  president, 
William  T.  Merrifield  vice-president,  and  Henry 
Chapin,  William  A.  Wheeler,  Charles  Thurber, 
Horace  James,  and  Oliver  C.  Fenton  were  directors. 
Thus,  at  home,  within  forty-four  miles  of  Boston, 
it  was  thought  best  to  have  a  fully  equipped  com- 
pany ready  for  action. 

In  New  Haven,  Conn.,  the  famous  Charles  B. 
Lines  Colony  was  formed,  consisting  of  seventy- 
nine  well-armed  men.  I  went  to  that  city  three 
times,  made  three  addresses  there  (two  of  them  in 
Rev.  Dr.  Bacon's  church),  and  had  several  con- 
ferences with  President  Woolsey,  Dr.  Bacon,  Pro- 
fessor Silliman,  Professor  Twining,  and  others,  in 
which  I  urged  the  forming  of  this  colony.  From 
hundreds  of  other  places  colonies,  parties,  and 
individuals  went  to  Kansas  through  the  influence 
of  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Company, 
whose  names  were  never  recorded  in  the  Boston 
books,  and  who  never  visited  our  office.  What 


56  THE   KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

influences  gave  the  company  such  far -reaching 
power  ? 

First.  The  press  had  advertised  far  and  near 
that  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  were  ready  to  use 
all  the  money  needed  in  building  towns  in  Kansas ; 
that  they  were  sending  out  steam-engines,  saw- 
mills, grist-mills,  and  other  machinery ;  that  they 
were  building  hotels  and  boarding-houses;  that 
they  were  establishing  newspapers,  churches,  and 
schools.  From  these  facts  emigrants  inferred  read- 
ily enough  that  in  these  incipient  cities,  with  or- 
ganized emigration  flowing  in  rapidly,  there  would 
be  an  excellent  prospect  for  making  money  by 
the  rise  of  property.  The  press  also  reported  the 
ovations  which  each  colony  received  all  the  way 
from  Boston  to  Chicago,  the  cheers  and  the  god- 
speeds awaiting  them  at  every  principal  railroad- 
station,  in  the  grand  crusade  for  freedom. 

Second.  Best  of  all,  and  most  powerful  in  secur- 
ing emigrants  for  Kansas,  was  the  argument  of 
patriotism.  Kansas  was  to  be  secured  to  freedom. 
Where,  but  a  little  while  before,  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  had  extinguished  all  hope 
and  left  only  despair,  faith  and  hope  revived,  and 
the  glorious  freedom-loving  processions  moved  on. 
In  every  town  and  hamlet,  from  Maine  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  the  Boston  company's  work  was 
discussed  and  applauded. 

Another  important  point  in  estimating  the  work 
of  these  Kansas  societies,  leagues,  and  committees 
is  that  they  sent  out  "  men  only,"  with  very  rare 
exceptions.  In  the  enumeration  of  the  people  of  the 


ONLY  MEN.  57 

Territory,  at  the  end  of  1854,  the  entire  number  was 
a  little  more  than  eight  thousand.  More  than  half 
the  voters  in  that  eight  thousand  went  to  Kansas 
directly  or  indirectly  through  the  influence  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company.  When  the  Missourians 
moved  into  Kansas  to  settle,  they  took  their  fam- 
ilies with  them.  Hence,  it  would  take  at  least 
five  Missourians  in  the  enumeration  to  equal  at 
the  polls  one  of  our  Eastern  or  Northern  emi- 
grants, who  left  their  families  at  home  until  they 
could  provide  for  them  in  the  Territory.  The  C. 
B.  Lines  Colony  of  seventy-nine  able-bodied  men 
were  equal  at  the  polls  to  three  hundred  and 
ninety-five  Missourians  in  the  enumeration  of  all 
the  people. 

The  books  of  the  Boston  company  show  the  names 
of  about  three  thousand  emigrants  in  all.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  these  numbers  were  doubled  before 
they  reached  Kansas.  If  we  consider  that  these 
were  almost  all  men,  who  left  their  families  at  home 
for  one  or  two  years,  and  that  each  one  represent- 
ed five  in  the  Territorial  enumeration,  we  get 
an  aggregate  of  over  thirty  thousand  from  this 
company  during  the  three  years  of  the  crusade. 
But  many  of  the  accessions  were  furnished  by 
Kansas  leagues  along  the  route  from  Boston  to 
Kansas.  There  were  many  leagues,  however,  in 
Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  southern  New  York, 
southern  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  which  sent  their  emi- 
grants by  a  nearer  route  than  that  used  by  the 
Boston  company.  They  were  all,  however,  act- 
ing in  concert,  since  they  were  all  loyal  to  the 
3* 


58  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Plan  of  Freedom,  and  had  a  common  origin  and 
common  purpose. 

In  the  New  York  Tribune  of  August  30,  1856, 
there  is  an  account  of  one  of  our  colonies  which 
left  Boston  numbering  less  than  one  hundred, 
but  increased  by  accessions  along  the  route  un- 
til, in  Iowa,  near  their  destination,  they  numbered 
three  hundred  and  eighty-four.  From  numerous 
instances  of  this  kind,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
power  of  the  Boston  company  in  this  conflict 
should  not  be  measured  by  the  number  of  emi- 
grants recorded  in  their  books. 

The  charter  of  the  company  having  been  aban- 
doned, and  the  plan  of  trustees  for  the  ensuing 
year  substituted,  we  immediately  began  the  col- 
lection of  money  for  immediate  use.  It  was  de- 
cided that  a  capital  of  $200,000  would  be  suffi- 
cient for  the  Kansas  work.  In  fact,  the  com- 
pany did  not  use  in  all  over  $140,000,  and  this 
small  sum  was  contributed  during  three  years, 
mainly  as  a  charity,  and  without  hope  of  returns. 
My  original  plan  was,  as  we  have  seen,  to  form  a 
business  company,  to  be  conducted  upon  business 
principles,  able  to  make  good  dividends  to  its 
stockholders  annually,  and  at  its  close,  a  full  re- 
turn of  all  the  money  originally  invested.  To 
have  done  this  would  have  required  no  marvellous 
financial  skill.  "We  should  have  had  the  power 
to  build  cities  and  towns  wherever  we  might 
choose  to  locate  them,  and  could  invest  money  in 
western  Missouri  land  as  well  as  in  Kansas. 
Twelve  acres  of  land,  now  in  the  very  centre  of 


THE  CHARITY  PLAN.  59 

Kansas  City,  were  offered  to  us  for  $3000.  The 
same  tract  is  now  worth  several  millions.  I 
urged  the  purchase  of  this  and  of  other  land  in 
that  place,  but  my  associates  opposed  my  views, 
and  the  purchases  were  not  made.  The  main  ob- 
jection of  my  associates  to  my  original  plan  of  a 
money-making  company,  was  a  fear  that  people 
might  say  that  we  were  influenced  by  pecuniary 
considerations  in  our  patriotic  work  for  Kansas. 
Therefore,  they  did  not  desire  any  return  for  any 
money  invested.  So  we  went  on  the  charity  plan, 
and  were  never  one-half  so  efficient  as  we  would 
have  been  by  the  other  method,  and  were  fully 
twice  as  long  in  determining  the  destiny  of 
Kansas. 

It  was  my  purpose,  when  I  wrote  that  charter, 
to  be  done  with  Kansas  in  1855,  and  then,  with- 
out loss  of  time,  and  with  increased  capital,  to 
have  bought  up  large  tracts  of  worn-out  lands 
in  Yirginia.  Of  these  it  was  my  purpose  to  give 
one-half,  in  forty-acre  lots,  to  our  immigrants 
from  the  free  States.  The  remaining  half  would 
be  worth  not  less  than  four  times  the  whole 
cost,  as  soon  as  the  immigrants  had  occupied 
their  homesteads.  Two  years  of  such  work,  by 
such  a  company,  in  Yirginia,  would  have  made 
her  as  secure  for  the  Union  in  1861  as  Massachu- 
setts was. 

I  had  not  then,  and  have  not  now,  the  slight- 
est respect  for  that  pride  in  charity  which  ex- 
cludes from  great  philanthropic  enterprises  the 
strength  and  the  effectiveness  of  money-making. 


60  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

There  are  supporters  of  missionary  societies  who 
make  from  the  traffic  in  ardent  spirits  the  money 
they  contribute,  who  would  doubtless  oppose  the 
plan  of  making  such  societies  self-sustaining  by 
sharing  in  the  property  which  they  create.  Why 
is  it  worse  for  a  company  to  make  money  by  ex- 
tending Christianity  than  by  making  cotton  cloth  ? 
More  than  thirty  years  ago  I  spoke  before  several 
missionary  meetings,  urging  the  adoption  of  this 
plan  of  self-supporting  missions.  At  that  time 
there  were  too  many  objectors  in  authority  who 
did  not  think  it  wise  to  "lower  the  Christian 
standard  "  so  much  as  to  reap  a  profit  from  Chris- 
tian work  to  insure  further  Christian  progress. 
But  Bishop  Taylor  has  recently  been  using  this 
method  in  Africa  with  much  success.  This  is  now 
the  exception ;  at  a  later  day  it  will  become  the 
rule.* 

The  truth  is,  that  the  highest  civilization  is  the 
greatest  creator  of  wealth.  She  is  the  modern 
Midas,  with  power  to  turn  everything  she  touches 
into  gold.  Properly  equipped,  and  with  proper 
direction,  she  will  conquer  and  supplant  any  in- 
ferior condition  of  men.  This  she  will  do  without 
your  money  or  mine,  but  with  her  own.  Even  a 
small  share  in  the  wealth  which  she  creates  will 
speedily  carry  her  round  the  world  in  strength  and 
majesty.  Then  she  will  move  as  a  queen.  Now 


*The  views  of  the  author  in  favor  of  self-supporting  mis- 
sionary societies  were  fully  presented  in  Tlte  New  Englander, 
in  1858,  vol.  xvi.,  p.  847. 


BUSINESS  BETTER   THAN   CHARITY.  61 

she  limps  like  a  beggar  on  crutches,  waiting  for 
pennies,  nickels,  and  dimes,  extorted  by  pitiful  ap- 
peals. To  such  humiliation  is  she  subjected  by 
the  ignorance  of  her  devotees,  and  by  their  false 
notions  of  charity.  Even  her  servants,  who  scorn 
to  "mingle  the  spiritual  with  the  worldly,"  have 
need  of  food  and  clothing  and  shelter.  These 
they  secure  by  contributions.  If  their  mistress  had 
but  a  fraction  of  the  wealth  which  she  creates,  she 
could  feed  and  clothe  and  shelter  them  all,  as  a  re- 
ward for  their  services,  and  thus  raise  them  far 
above  the  need  of  charitable  contributions. 

Now,  if  we  apply  the  above  reasoning  to  an 
organized,  peaceful  competition  of  free  labor  with 
slave  labor  in  the  former  slave  States,  it  will  be 
readily  seen  with  what  certainty  freedom  would 
have  been  sustained.  The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  so  fiercely  denounced  by  the  Garri- 
son disunionists  as  "  a  league  with  death  and  a  cov- 
enant with  hell,"  gave  Freedom  the  power,  when- 
ever she  chose  to  use  it,  to  extinguish  slavery. 

In  the  provision  that  "  the  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens  in  the  several  States,"  there  was  laid 
(though  perhaps  without  that  design)  the  corner- 
stone for  freedom  in  all  the  States.  Now,  if  it  was 
true,  as  the  census  proved,  and  as  all  the  people  of 
the  free  States  maintained  and  believed,  that  our 
civilization  was  superior  to  that  of  the  slave  States, 
then  we  were  at  liberty  at  any  time  to  go  into  the 
inferior  States  and  establish  free  labor  there.  We 
were  not  only  at  liberty  to  do  this,  but  we  had  a 


62  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

very  great  inducement  to  do  it.  Suppose  that  an 
organization  under  a  charter  like  the  one  first 
granted  to  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  with  a  cap- 
ital of  $5,000,000,  had  begun  in  earnest  to  colonize 
Virginia  with  emigrants  from  the  North,  and  had 
secured  large  tracts  of  land  at  the  slave-State  prices 
of  $2,  or  even  $3,  per  acre,  whereon  to  locate  the 
free -State  settlers,  these  same  lands  would  have 
been  doubled,  trebled,  or  quadrupled  in  value  as 
soon  as  they  were  thus  occupied.  There  was  really 
no  limit  to  the  profit  ready  for  an  energetic  and 
able  company,  in  thus  changing  slave  States  to 
free.  In  fact,  such  a  company  could  well  have 
afforded  to  pay  for  all  the  slaves  in  the  States  so 
redeemed.  But  this  they  would  not  have  been  ex- 
pected to  do,  and  would  not  have  done.  In  a  few 
3rears,  however,  they  could  have  driven  all  the 
slave-holders  to  the  shores  of  the  Mexican  Gulf. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DIFFICULTIES    AND    DISCOURAGEMENTS. THE    FOUND- 
ING  OF   LAWRENCE. 

HAVING  now  accepted  the  charity  plan,  since 
there  was  no  time  to  be  wasted  in  arguing  for  the 
original  and  better  one,  I  immediately  returned  to 
the  work  of  completing  our  first  colony,  which  had 
been  suspended  during  my  absence  in  ~New  York 
City.  The  difficulty  which  attended  my  efforts  can 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  I  made  not  far  from 
fifty  speeches  to  secure  the  little  colony  of  twenty- 
nine  men.  There  was  very  little  faith  in  our  en- 
terprise up  to  this  point.  The  friends  of  the  young 
men  who  had  engaged  to  go  were  generally  very 
despondent,  and  often  said  that  the  scheme  would 
result  only  in  failure,  and  a  great  if  not  a  fatal  loss 
to  those  who  were  so  daring  as  to  enlist  in  it. 
Slavery  had  the  prestige  of  such  continuous  and 
prolonged  success  that  even  the  most  ardent  of 
anti  slavery  men  scarcely  dared  to  hope  for  any 
favorable  result  against  such  odds.  The  Southern 
papers,  too,  were  full  of  their  arrogant  boasting 
and  threats,  which  served  to  intimidate  the  less 
daring  of  our  emigrants.  All  this,  however,  was 
eventually  of  great  service  to  our  cause,  since  it 
eliminated,  from  the  beginning,  certain  cowardly 
elements  which  it  was  far  from,  desirable  to  retain. 


64  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Even  some  Northern  journals  were  ready  to  ex- 
press confidence  in  the  success  of  the  slave  power 
in  Kansas.  Such  papers,  however,  were  very  few. 

Here  is  an  editorial  from  the  Lynchburg  (Va.)  Re- 
publican of  July  1,  1854,  not  only  expressing  the 
greatest  confidence  in  the  success  of  slavery  in 
Kansas,  but  also  attempting  to  intimidate  our  emi- 
grants by  threats  of  abuse  and  outrage  after  reach- 
ing their  destination : 

"The  Worcester  Spy  announces  that  the  first  brvnd  of  emigrants 
for  Kansas  under  the  charge  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  will 
start  from  Boston  on  the  17th  inst.  We  wish  them  the  utmost 
success  their  hearts  can  desire  in  getting  there,  for  the  hardy 
pioneers  of  Kansas  will  doubtless  have  tar  and  feathers  prepared 
in  abundance  for  their  reception.  Kansas  is  open  for  settlement 
both  to  the  North  and  the  South.  Slavery  has  been  kept  out  of 
Territories  by  Congressional  enactments,  but  lias  never  failed  to 
carry  the  day  and  firmly  establish  itself  upon  new  Territories 
when  allowed  to  enter." 

Another  similar  specimen  is  the  following  edito- 
rial in  the  Kansas  Pioneer,  a  newspaper  which  fre- 
quently derided  our  emigrants  as  "  the  hired  paupers 
of  Eli  Thayer  &  Co."  : 

"We  want  to  see  a  pro-slavery  Legislature  to  a  man,  or  at 
least  a  large  majority  of  the  friends  of  Southern  institutions  rep- 
resent our  interests  in  the  halls  of  legislation.  We  want  to  be 
governed  by  sound  laws,  and  pro-slavery  men  only  are  compe- 
tent to  make  such  laws.  Under  their  banner  we  have  always 
done  battle,  and  under  their  guardianship  we  shall  ever  be  found 
battling.  We  have  no  sympathy  for  Abolitionists,  and  the  sooner 
they  are  made  to  believe  that  the  squatters  of  Kansas  Territory 
have  no  sympathy  for  their  black,  nefarious,  contemptible  dog- 
mas the  better.  We  want  no  negro-sympathizing  thieves  among 
us;  they  will  be  running  off  our  slaves  whenever  a  chance  offers. 


SOUTHERN  THREATS.  65 

Their  hearts  are  as  black  as  the  darkest  deeds  of  hell.  Away 
with  them ;  send  them  back  where  they  belong.  Up  with  the 
banner  and  shout  of  slavery,  now  and  forever,  in  our  land.  .  .  . 
Down  with  every  Abolition  barrier  that  dare  impede  our  way!" 

It  would  be  easy  to  fill  a  volume  with  the  edito- 
rials of  Southern  journals  in  1854,  denouncing  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  and  attempting  by  threats 
of  bowie-knives,  revolvers,  tar  and  feathers,  hemp, 
and  grape-vines,  to  intimidate  and  discourage  the 
emigrants  to  Kansas  from  the  Northern  States. 
While  these  efforts  were,  no  doubt,  powerful  in  de- 
terring the  more  timid  and  irresolute  of  our  intend- 
ed colonists  from  joining  in  the  great  crusade,  they 
served  to  stimulate  the  more  daring,  and  to  inten- 
sify their  determination  to  assert  and  maintain 
their  rights.  Thousands  of  our  young  men  looked 
upon  such  threats  as  great  inducements  to  take  an 
active  part  and  have  a  personal  interest  in  the  new 
migration. 

As  a  fit  description  of  the  pioneer  Kansas  colony 
which  founded  Lawrence,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
numerous  emigrants  who  followed  them,  either  sin- 
gly or  in  companies,  I  insert  the  following  editorial 
from  the  Christian  Register  of  July  22, 1854 : 

"The  first  pioneer  company  of  New  England  men  bound  for 
Kansas  left  last  Monday.  They  were  twenty-nine  in  number, 
bound  on  such  enterprises  as  will  facilitate  the  settlement  of 
those  who  are  to  follow,  and  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  exposure 
of  frontier  life.  So  soon  as  the  season  permits,  and  the  country 
is  legally  open  for  settlers,  large  numbers  will  pour  in.  The  best 
results  of  our  farms,  of  our  colleges,  of  our  workshops,  and  of 
our  professional  schools — of  early  enterprise  in  distant  countries 
and  of  careful  study  of  the  rights  of  men — were  brought  together 


66  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

in  that  little  company.  The  pioneer  body  was  one  of  the  best 
representations  possible  of  New  England  character.  From  what 
we  see  and  know  of  them,  we  should  not  be  sorry  to  see  them 
matched  against  any  twenty-nine  they  may  meet  in  their  travels." 

The  above  description  is  truthful  and  just,  with- 
in certain  limits,  but  it  does  not  exhibit  the  moral 
excellence  and  the  devotion  to  principle  of  the  pio- 
neer Kansas  colony.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a 
self-sacrificing  emigration  such  as  the  world's  his- 
tory had  never  before  shown. 

A  writer  in  the  Christian  Examiner  for  July, 
1855,  concludes  an  exhaustive  article  upon  the  not- 
able migrations  of  history  by  awarding  the  high- 
est honor  to  the  Kansas  pioneers,  as  follows  : 

"Looking  back  upon  the  champions  of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty, upon  the  philanthropists  of  other  times,  and  all  the  '  goodly 
array  of  martyrs,'  we  see  those  who  to  their  own  age  were  a 
mere  nebula  of  erratic  spirits,  shapeless  and  unsymmetrical,  re- 
solved under  our  distant  telescopic  view  into  stars  of  the  first 
magnitude.  "We  see  the  light  which  they  originated  or  reflected, 
and  the  multitudes  of  weary,  wandering  mortals  who  have  been 
guided  to  certainty  and  peace  by  the  aid  of  their  far-penetrating 
rays,  but  we  do  not  see,  and  we  do  not  want  to  see,  the  coarse 
and  very  earth-like  materials  of  which  they  were,  after  all,  com- 
posed. The  great  movements  of  the  past  are  revealed  to  us,  in 
all  their  massive  grandeur,  by  the  light  of  their  results.  The 
changes  going  on  in  our  own  time,  and  conducted  by  ordinary 
mortals  on  our  own  level,  are  colored  by  the  involuntary  preju- 
dices which  intimacy  and  detail  excite,  and  are  examined  by  the 
varying  light  of  our  own  interests  and  passions.  Candor  is  scarce- 
ly possible  under  the  circumstances,  even  if  the  future  is  appre- 
hended in  the  present. 

"To  some  there  seems  little  in  this  age  which  posterity  shall 
call  heroic,  or  the  memory  of  which  they  shall  love  to  cherish ; 
yet  there  is  a  movement  now  in  progress  which  we  believe  is  des- 
tined to  stand  recorded  in  future  ages  as  second  to  none  in  the 


HEROES  OF  THE  CRUSADE.  67 

purity  and  nobleness  of  its  object,  or  in  the  vast  results  to  hu- 
manity involved  in  its  ultimate  success.  Goths,  Celts,  and  Anglo- 
Americans  have  been  impelled  to  distant  migrations  by  the  hope 
of  spoils ;  religious  propagandists  by  force  and  fraud  have 
changed  old  lands  for  new;  and  the  slaves  of  taskmasters  and 
the  victims  of  conscience-binders  have  alike  fled  for  refuge  to 
the  wilderness,  some  for  physical,  some  for  spiritual  compensa- 
tion. But  it  was  reserved  to  the  present  age  and  to  the  present 
period  to  afford  the  sublimer  spectacle  of  an  extensive  migration 
in  vindication  of  a  principle;  a  principle  which  is  to  benefit  not 
the  emigrants  but  others,  and  those  others  of  a  degraded  race  and 
of  a  different  color. 

"  The  future  will  not  have  to  record  of  the  emigrants  to  Kan- 
sas that  they  were  forced  out  of  their  old  homes  by  dissensions, 
oppressions,  or  even  such  incompatibility  of  sentiment  with  the 
communities  they  left  as  made  their  position  uncomfortable  to 
themselves  or  others.  Neither  the  blight  of  famine  nor  an  over- 
crowded population  darkened  their  prospects  in  the  home  of 
their  fathers.  Neither  pressure  from  without,  nor  the  beckon- 
ings  of  ambition,  nor  the  monitions  of  avarice,  control  the  great 
Kansas  migration.  Not  for  themselves  or  for  those  identified 
with  their  interests,  not  even  for  their  peers  or  ancient  allies, 
to  whom  association  and  mutual  remembrances  have  attached 
them — no,  none  of  all  these  things  move  them.  The  great  motor- 
power  is  the  love  of  freedom,  and  its  special  impetus  the  sympa- 
thy of  a  superior  race  (certainly  as  far  as  condition  is  concerned) 
with  an  inferior,  and  for  a  people  who  can  neither  appreciate 
nor  repay  the  sacrifice.  In  the  unselfishness  of  the  object  lies 
its  claim  to  the  highest  regard,  and  its  right  to  the  highest  place 
in  the  history  of  migrations. 

"  The  genuineness  of  the  movement  is  evidenced  by  the  entire 
absence  of  coercive  circumstances,  such  as  have  aided  other  mi- 
grations, in  which  the  love  of  freedom  was  a  principal  ingredi- 
ent. And  in  this  unselfishness  the  Kansas  migration  is  repre- 
sentative of  the  age.  Not  that  selfishness  is  dead,  or  disinterested 
benevolence  a  universal  or  even  a  very  extended  basis  of  action ; 
but  the  philanthropy  of  the  present  has  far  more  of  this  charac- 
ter than  had  that  of  any  former  age.  .  .  . 

"The  Kansas  migration  is  the  boldest  exponent  of  this  en- 
lightened philanthropy.  It  meets  a  gaunt  and  dismal  fact  by 


68  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

creating  a  more  vital  and  self-perpetuating  fact.  The  spirit  of 
freedom  which  it  embodies  is  no  longer  content  to  meet  a  usur- 
pation with  a  'resolution,'  but  goes  out  in  its  strength  to  unseat 
the  intruder.  In  the  appropriateness  of  the  means  is  the  earnest 
of  victory. 

"  Nor  may  the  participators  in  enterprises  such  as  this  be  just- 
ly depreciated  by  the  suspicion  of  mixed  motives.  Few  indeed 
are  the  actions  of  men  which  result  from  an  isolated  impulse, 
opinion,  or  thought;  complexity  of  motive  is  almost  inseparable 
from  human  action;  nor  is  it  always  easy  to  define  with  precis- 
ion the  exact  weight  attached  to  each  motive.  But  in  judging 
of  these  great  movements  which  affect  humanity,  and  in  decid- 
ing on  the  just  meed  of  praise  due  to  the  participators,  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  know  that  had  the  greatest  and  best  motive  l>een  absent, 
their  co-operation,  would  have  been  wanting;  that  Avhatever  col- 
lateral influences  were  brought  to  bear  on  them,  the  great  central 
idea  was  paramount.without  which  all  others  would  have  proved 
ineffectual.  Will  not  after -ages,  then,  decide  that  the  Kansas 
migration  was  purer  and  more  unselfish,  even,  than  that  which 
found  its  haven  at  Plymouth  Rock?  The  old  homes  of  Old 
England  were  abandoned  in  obedience  to  the  mandates  of  con- 
science; the  old  homes  of  New  England  are  deserted  in  vindica- 
tion of  the  Christ-like  principle  of  universal  love.  The  pioneer 
band  who  have  planted  their  standard  in  the  centre  of  the  con- 
federacy that  they  may  redeem  a  continent  to  freedom  shall 
never  find  their  laurels  paling,  even  beside  the  glory-crowns  of 
those  who  first  planted  free  institutions  on  its  eastern  slope." 

The  country  has  properly,  on  all  occasions  and 
in  every  way,  conceded  high  honor  to  the  brave 
men  who  enlisted  in  the  war  for  the  Union ;  but 
the  Kansas  emigrants,  who  volunteered  to  become 
a  barrier  against  the  extension  of  slavery,  enlisted 
in  an  enterprise  which  at  the  time  seemed  more 
hazardous  than  the  war  against  secession.  The 
soldier  had  food,  clothing,  arms,  transportation, 
shelter,  pay,  and  care  in  sickness  provided  by  the 


SUPERIOR  TO   PLYMOUTII  PILGRIMS.  69 

Government.  These  emigrants  provided  all  these 
necessaries  for  themselves,  at  their  own  expense. 
It  seems  marvellous  even  now  that  men  could  be 
found  so  patriotic  and  resolute  as  to  risk  every- 
thing for  the  cause  of  freedom.  The  public  has 
never  yet  done  justice  to  these  noblest  specimens 
of  the  human  race.  Mr.  Whittier,  in  his  "Emi- 
grants' Song,"  says : 

"We  cross  the  prairies  as  of  old 
Our  fathers  crossed  the  se.t ; 
To  make  the  West,  as  they  the  East, 
The  homestead  of  the  free." 

But  there  is  a  wide  difference  between  these  Kan- 
sas emigrants  and  the  Plymouth  pilgrims.  The 
latter  fled  from  oppression,  and  sought  in  the  new 
world  "  freedom  to  worship  God."  The  former  mi- 
grated to  meet,  to  resist,  and  to  destroy  oppression, 
in  vindication  of  their  principles.  These  were  self- 
sacrificing  emigrants,  the  others  were  self-seeking. 
Justice,  though  tardy  in  its  work,  will  yet  load 
with  the  highest  honors  the  memory  of  the  heroic 
Kansas  pioneers  who  gave  themselves  and  all  they 
had  to  the  sacred  cause  of  human  rights. 

This  pioneer  colony  left  Boston  on  the  17th  of 
July,  1854.  Immense  crowds  had  gathered  at  the 
station  to  give  them  the  parting  godspeed  and  the 
pledge  of  their  future  cordial  care.  They  moved 
out  of  the  station  amid  the  cheering  crowds  who 
lined  the  track  for  several  blocks.  The  fact  of  this 
intense  public  interest  impelled  others  to  prepare 
to  join  the  colony,  intending  to  go  one  month  later. 


70  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Such  was  the  effect  of  the  public  enthusiasm — an 
earnest,  sufficient  for  the  thoughtful,  of  certain  suc- 
cess in  the  future. 

The  emigrants  remained  in  Worcester  the  first 
night  and  received  a  suitable  ovation.  Several  of 
the  leading  citizens  called  upon  them  and  applaud- 
ed their  patriotic  devotion,  pledging  remembrance 
and  aid  in  any  emergency.  Two  Worcester  me- 
chanics, Mr.  Fuller  and  Mr.  Mallory,  here  joined 
the  colony. 

The  next  day  I  took  charge  of  the  party,  and 
we  were  met  in  the  evening  at  Albany  by  a  good 
number  of  the  citizens,  who  welcomed  us  writh 
great  cordiality.  The  next  day  we  were  cheered 
at  all  the  principal  stations  as  we  passed  on  our 
westward  journey,  until  we  reached  Rochester. 
Here  a  very  large  crowd  had  gathered  to  welcome 
and  cheer  the  party.  The  president  of  the  Monroe 
County  Bible  Society  made  an  address,  and  pre- 
sented the  colony  with  a  large  and  elegant  Bible ; 
so  that  Mr.  Whittier's  poem,  subsequently  written, 
was  historically  correct  in  saying : 

"Upbearing,  as  the  ark  of  old, 
The  Bible  in  our  van." 

Much  to  our  delight,  Rochester  furnished  us  two 
recruits — a  Dr.  Doy,  and  a  youth  of  great  promise, 
and  afterwards  of  great  performance,  D.  R.  An- 
thony. From  that  day  forward  to  the  end  of  the 
great  conflict,  Mr.  Anthony  devoted  himself  with 
tireless  energy  to  the  work  of  making  Kansas  free. 
He  is  now  living  to  witness  and  enjoy  in  wealth 


SITE  OF  LAWRENCE  DETERMINED.  71 

and  honor  the  grand  results  of  that  great  achieve- 
ment. 

On  the  evening  of  that  day  I  put  the  little  colony 
on  board  the  steamer  Plymouth  Rock,  in  Buffalo, 
to  cross  the  lake.  I  was  obliged  to  return  East  to 
begin  the  work  of  raising  the  second  colony ;  but 
before  taking  leave  of  my  charge,  I  wrote  a  letter 
to  Charles  H.  Branscomb,  our  agent  in  Kansas,  who 
was  to  meet  this  party  in  St.  Louis.  The  letter 
directed  him  to  lead  the  colony  up  the  valley  of 
the  Kaw  Eiver,  through  the  Shawnee  reservation, 
and  locate  them  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  on 
the  first  good  town -site  west  of  the  Shawnees. 
Mr.  Branscomb,  in  accordance  with  my  direction, 
founded  the  celebrated  city  of  Lawrence,  subse- 
quently the  centre  of  the  free -State  power,  and 
now  the  seat  of  the  State  University,  and  of  the 
famous  Indian  school,  the  Haskell  Institute. 

During  the  entire  journey  from  Worcester  to 
Buffalo  I  had  been  carefully  considering  where  it 
would  be  best  to  locate  the  first  colony.  It  seemed 
wise  to  plant  the  first  town  at  such  a  distance  from 
the  Missouri  line  that  it  could  not  be  easily  assailed 
by  hostile  forces  from  that  State  without  ample 
notice  to  our  people  and  some  chance  for  prepara- 
tions for  defence.  I  therefore  decided  that  our 
town  should  be  about  fifty  miles  from  Missouri. 
I  chose  the  valley  of  the  Kaw  as  being  in  the  cen- 
tral portion  of  the  Territory,  and  destined  at  an 
early  day  to  have  railway  communication  with  the 
East.  I  chose  the  south  bank  of  the  Kaw,  so  that 
the  Platte  Purchase  of  Missouri  and  the  new  town 


72  TilE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

would  have  two  wide  rivers  between  them.  These 
were  the  main  reasons  for  the  specific  directions  in 
my  letter  to  Mr.  Branscomb. 

The  history  of  the  Kansas  contest  abundantly 
justified  the  selection  made.  The  following  quo- 
tation from  Senator  Wilson's  History  gives  a  cor- 
rect idea  of  the  decisive  work  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company : 

"  The  Emigrant  Aid  Societies  of  New  England,  though  free- 
dom in  Kansas  was  one  object,  had  others  which,  with  their 
methods,  were  indicated  by  their  name.  Their  purpose  and 
plan  were  to  aid  those  who  would  procure  lands  and  make  for 
themselves  homes  in  the  new  Territory.  They  contemplated 
only  peaceful  modes,  though  the  emigrants  themselves  were  of 
course  compelled  to  resort  to  such  means  of  self-defence  as  the 
'  border-ruffian '  policy  rendered  imperative. 

"The  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  the  first  and  most 
prominent  of  these  free-State  organizations,  originated  with  Eli 
Thayer,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  a  member  of  the  Legislat- 
ure of  that  State  in  1854.  Preparing  a  charter,  he  procured  an 
Act  of  Incorporation  early  in  that  year.  Immediately  on  the  ad- 
journment of  that  body  he  entered  upon  the  work,  in  which  he 
was  greatly  aided  by  Amos  A.  Lawrence  and  J.  M.  S.  Williams, 
of  Massachusetts,  and  John  Carter  Brown,  of  Rhode  Island. 
Success  crowned  his  labors;  the  association  was  organized, and 
on  the  17th  of  July  he  started  with  a  company  of  twenty-four 
for  that  far-off  laud.  As  the  successful  working  up  of  his  plan 
required  his  presence  at  the  East,  he  accompanied  them  only  as 
far  as  Buffalo.  .  .  . 

"In  August,  another  colony, and  much  larger,  came.  With 
their  New  England  outfit  was  a  steam  saw-mill.  The  new-com- 
ers entered  in  earnest  upon  the  work  of  making  themselves  a 
home  on  that  inviting  spot,  and  soon  their  canvas  tents  gave 
place  to  more  substantial  structures.  Among  the  members  of 
the  second  company  were  Dr.  Charles  Robinson  and  Samuel  C. 
Pomeroy,  the  one  becoming  the  first  governor  under  the  free- 
State  Constitution,  and  the  latter  subsequently  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate. 


HENRY  WILSON'S  VIEWS.  73 

"This  organized  effort  of  free-State  men,  and  the  fact  that 
they  had  formed  a  settlement,  and  that  the  town  of  Lawrence 
had  actually  taken  form  and  name,  produced  a  marked  impres- 
sion both  North  and  South.  At  the  North  it  kindled  anew  hopes 
which  the  course  of  events  had  wellnigh  extinguished.  .  .  .  Not 
only  did  several  additional  colonies  go  from  Massachusetts  arid 
the  other  New  England  States,  but  similar  colonies  were  formed 
in  the  States  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  To  this 
work  Mr.  Thayer  devoted  himself  with  tireless  energy  and  un- 
ceasing effort.  Fully  impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  free 
States  had  the  power  to  secure  in  this  way  freedom  to  the  Ter- 
ritories, he  travelled  sixty  thousand  miles,  and  made  hundreds 
of  speeches  enunciating  these  views,  and  calling  upon  the  peo- 
ple to  join  in  this  grand  crusade."  * 

*  Wilson's  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America," 
vol.  ii.,  p.  465. 


CHAPTER  VL 

THE   IMPOTENCE   OF   THE   ANTISLAVEBY   DISUNIONISTS. 

THE  Puritans  of  the  Mayflower  were  opposed  to 
slavery. 

The  first  legislative  assembly  of  white  men  in 
New  England  made  a  law  that  "  no  bond  slavery, 
villeinage,  or  captivitie  should  ever  exist  in  the 
Massachusetts  Colony." 

Slavery  never  had  a  legal  existence  in  Massachu- 
setts, as  was  proved  in  the  Quirk  Walker  case  in 
Barre,  Worcester  County,  during  the  Revolution- 
ary War. 

In  1787  the  entire  country  was  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  slavery,  and  considered  it  a  great  evil. 
The  ordinance  introduced  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in 
1784  was  passed  in  1787  with  but  one  dissenting 
vote,  given  by  a  New  York  member.  Though  that 
ordinance  was  of  no  practical  use — only  an  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  or  a  manifesto — its  existence  upon 
the  statute-book  served  to  show  the  hostility  of  the 
people  of  this  country  to  chattel  slavery. 

While  the  people  of  the  Northern  States  were 
nearly  unanimous  in  their  hatred  of  slavery,  and 
were  anxious  that  the  entire  country  should  be  res- 
cued from  its  curse,  they  still  regarded  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Government  as  a  calamity  infinitely 


BENJAMIN  LUNDY.  75 

greater.     They  watched  the  development  of  our  f 
national  progress,  and  hoped  for  a  solution  of  the  I 
question  between  the  North  and  the  South  with- 1 
out  the  loss  of  the  Union.     Patiently  waiting,  and! 
restraining  all  impulsive  feelings,  they  were  ready  | 
for  effective  action  whenever  the  proper  time  should) 
come. 

Benjamin  Lundy,  however,  was  impatient  of  de- 
lay, and  earnestly  devoted  himself  to  the  patriotic 
work  of  hastening  his  country's  deliverance.  Born 
•  of  Quaker  parents,  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  in 
1789,  he  worked  upon  his  father's  farm  until  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  when  he  wandered  westward  to 
Wheeling,  Virginia,  where  he  learned  by  actual  ob- 
servation the  curse  of  slavery  to  all  connected  with 
it,  both  black  and  white.  In  1815,  when  -twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  he  organized  an  antislavery  socie- 
ty, by  the  name  of  the  "  Union  Humane  Society." 
The  first  meeting  was  held  at  his  own  house,  and 
consisted  of  less  than  a  dozen  persons.  "Within  a 
few  months  the  membership  was  increased  to  sev- 
eral hundred,  and  included  many  prominent  men 
in  his  own  and  adjoining  counties.  In  1816  he  pub- 
lished an  "Appeal  to  Philanthropists,"  which  con- 
tained the  germ  of  his  future  antislavery  work. 
After  this  he  travelled  much  in  the  slave  States, 
and  organized  many  antislavery  societies  in  the 
very  home  of  slavery.  At  length  he  started  a  pa- 
per called  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation. 
During  the  summer  of  1824  he  travelled  on  foot 
through  the  States  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,, 
making  addresses  and  forming  antislavery  socie- 


76  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ties.  In  October  of  that  year  he  reached  Balti- 
more, and  there  resumed  at  once  the  publication 
of  the  Genius.  He  was  highly  esteemed  and  well 
sustained  in  the  slave  States.  Feeble  in  body  and 
far  from  robust  in  mind,  he  still  had  the  heart  of  a 
true  philanthropist  and  the  devotion  of  the  early 
Christian  martyrs. 

In  the  autumn  of  1828  Lundy  came  to  Massachu- 
setts to  form  antislavery  societies,  to  co-operate 
with  those  which  he  had  already  established  in  the 
slave  States.  He  delivered  an  address  in  the  Town- 
hall  in  Worcester  on  the  20th  of  August,  and  the 
two  papers  of  the  city  comment  upon  it  as  follows : 

"  Mr.  Lundy,  from  a  long  residence  in  the  Southern  States, 
could  spe.ak  from  personal  knowledge  of  the  feelings  of  the  peo- 
ple there.  A  majority  of  them,  and  even  of  the  slave-holders, 
are  desirous  of  abolishing  the  slave  system  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
done  with  prudence." — Massachusetts  Yeoman,  August  23,1828. 

The  Spy  of  September  "3d  says : 

"  In  the  slave  States  a  great  number,  and  probably  a  majority, 
of  the  people  are  anxious  to  be  freed  from  the  evil  of  slavery  as 
soon  as  it  can  prudently  be  done." 

Lundy  next  went  to  Boston  upon  the  same  mis- 
sion, and  addressed  a  meeting  of  clergymen,  urging 
a  friendly  co-operation  with  the  people  of  the  South 
in  extinguishing  slavery.  That  he  produced  a  de- 
cided effect  upon  his  audience  is  proved  by  the  fol- 
lowing letter,  written  directly  after  the  meeting, 
by  Kev.  Dr.  William  E.  Chanuing  to  lion.  Daniel 
Webster : 


CHANNING  TO  WEBSTER.  77 

"  BOSTON,  May  14, 182S. 

"MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  a  subject  of 
general  interest. 

"  A  little  while  ago,  Mr.  Lundy,  of  Baltimore,  the  editor  of  a 
paper  called  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  visited  this 
part  of  the  country  to  stir  up  the  work  of  abolishing  slavery  at 
the  South,  and  the  intention  is  to  organize  societies  for  this  pur- 
pose. I  know  few  objects  into  which  I  should  enter  with  more 
zeal,  but  I  am  aware  how  cautiously  exertions  are  to  be  made 
for  it  in  this  part  of  the  country.  I  know  that  our  Southern 
brethren  interpret  every  word  from  this  region  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  as  an  expression  of  hostility.  I  would  ask  if  they  can- 
not be  brought  to  understand  us  better,  and  if  we  can  do  any 
good  till  we  remove  their  misapprehensions?  It  seems  to  me 
that  before  moving  in  this  matter  we  ought  to  say  to  them  dis- 
tinctly, '  We  consider  slavery  as  your  calamity,  not  your  crime, 
and  we  will  share  with  you  the  burden  of  putting  an  end  to  it. 
We  will  consent  that  the  public  lands  shall  be  appropriated  to 
this  object,  or  that  the  General  Government  shall  be  clothed  with 
power  to  apply  a  portion  of  the  revenue  to  it.' 

"I  throw  out  these  suggestions  merely  to  illustrate  my  views. 
We  must  first  let  the  Southern  States  see  that  we  are  their  friends 
in  this  affair;  that  we  sympathize  with  them,  and,  from  princi- 
ples of  patriotism  and  philanthropy,  are  willing  to  share  the  toil 
and  expense  of  abolishing  slavery,  or  I  fear  our  interference  will 
avail  nothing.  I  am  the  more  sensitive  on  this  subject  from  my 
increased  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  I  know 
no  public  interest  so  important  as  this.  I  ask  from  the  General 
Government  hardly  any  other  boon  than  that  it  will  hold  us  to- 
gether, and  preserve  pacific  relations  and  intercourse  between 
the  States.  I  deprecate  everything  which  sows  discord  and  exas- 
perates sectional  animosities.  If  it  will  simply  keep  us  at  peace, 
and  will  maintain  in  full  power  the  national  courts  for  the  pur- 
pose of  settling  quietly  among  citizens  of  different  States  questions 
which  might  otherwise  be  settled  by  arms,  I  shall  be  satisfied. 

"My  fear  iu  regard  to  our  efforts  against  slavery  is  that  we 
shall  make  the  cause  worse  by  rousing  a  sectional  pride  and  pas- 
sion for  its  support,  and  that  we  shall  break  the  country  into 
two  great  parties,  which  may  shake  the  foundations  of  the 
Government. 


78  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"I  have  written  to  you  because  your  situation  gives  you  ad- 
vantages which  perhaps  no  other  man  enjoys  for  understanding 
the  method,  if  any  can  be  devised,  by  which  we  may  operate 
beneficially  and  safely  in  regard  to  slavery.  Appeals  will  prob- 
ably be  made  soon  to  the  people  here,  and  I  wish  that  wise  men 
would  save  us  from  the  rashness  of  enthusiasts,  and  from  the 
perils  to  which  our  very  virtues  expose  us. 

"  With  great  respect,  your  friend, 

"WILLIAM  E.  CHANXIXO. 

"Hon.  DANIEL  WEBSTEK." 


But  unfortunately,  Lundy,  while  in  Boston,  hap- 
\^  pened  to  board  in  the  same  house  with  a  young 
printer  by  the  name  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 
This  youth  had  formed  no  definite  ideas  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery,  but  under  the  tuition  of  Lundy 
became  a  convert  to  antislavery,  and  accompanied 
him  to  Baltimore  to  assist  in  publishing  his  paper. 
This  journal  was  sustained  mainly  by  subscribers 
and  advertisers  in  the  slave  States,  where  he  had 
been  doing  his  quiet  but  effective  antislavery  work. 

As  soon,  however,  as  Garrison  began  to  write  for 
the  paper  a  fierce  hostility  was  aroused  among  the 
slave-holders.  George  Alfred  Townsend,  in  a  letter 
to  the  Boston  Globe,  calls  these  disunionists  "  the 
snorting  Abolitionists,"  and  describes  the  result  of 
Garrison's  connection  with  Lundy  as  follows : 

"When  Garrison  went  to  Baltimore  City,  about  1829,  to  join 
Benjamin  Lundy  in  the  publication  of  an  emancipation  newspa- 
per, there  were  some  three  hundred  societies  in  the  slave  States, 
bottomed  upon  a  moral  dissatisfaction  with  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

"  When  Mr.  Garrison  got  to  Baltimore  he  changed  the  meth- 
ods of  Mr.  Lundy,  who  was  a  Quakerly  sort  of  person,  and  began 
to  attack  individuals  as  if  they  were  personally  responsible  for 


GARRISON  A  MARPLOT.  79 

the  status  of  slavery.     So  in  a  little  while  there  were  personal 
inquisitors,  and  all  the  work  which  Lundy  had  done  dissolved." 

It  is  much  to  be  deplored  that  at  this  time,  when 
there  was  a  friendly  feeling  between  the  North  and 
the  South,  and  a  disposition  to  co-operate  in  getting 
rid  of  slavery,  that  the  work  begun  by  Lundy  and 
approved  by  Dr.  Channing  should  have  been  arrest- 
ed and  destroyed.  The  gradual  extinction  of  sla- 
very could  then  have  been  made  certain  by  well- 
directed  efforts  of  men  so  earnest  and  patriotic. 
Such  a  chance  for  relief  was  never  again  presented. 

After  Garrison  began  to  issue  his  vituperative 
fulminations  in  Lundy's  paper,  the  South  became 
imbittered  against  all  antislavery  men,  however 
moderate.  Then  in  a  few  years  the  slave-holders, 
under  the  guidance  of  Calhoun,  were  united  for  the 
purpose  of  not  only  protecting  their  legal  rights, 
but  of  extending  slavery  until  it  should  become  the 
controlling  political  power  of  the  country.  This 
union  of  the  slave-holders  accomplished  in  a  few 
years  the  political  supremacy  of  slavery,  and  sub- 
jected to  its  undisputed  control  every  department 
of  the  National  Government. 

In  this  way  Garrison,  discarding  the  mild  and 
quiet  methods  of  Lundy,  began  to  denounce  the 
slave-holders  as  pirates,  thieves,  and  robbers.  He 
was  thereupon  prosecuted,  fined,  and  imprisoned. 
After  he  had  lain  in  jail  forty-nine  days,  Arthur 
Tappan,  of  New  York  City,  sent  the  money  which 
secured  his  liberation.  But  he  had  already  de- 
stroyed poor  Lundy.  He  had  not  only  captivated 
but  captured  him.  He  had  instilled  into  the  mind 


80  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  the  just  and  peaceful  Quaker  a  part  of  his  own 
virulence  and  love  of  anarchy. 

So,  in  1837,  John  Quincy  Adams  says :  "  Lundy 
and  the  Abolitionists  generally  are  constantly 
urging  me  to  indiscreet  movements,  which  would 
ruin  me  and  weaken  and  not  strengthen  their 
cause." 

From  the  day  of  Garrison's  connection  with 
Lundy  the  latter's  success  in  the  antislavery  cause 
began  to  decline,  and  after  a  few  years  his  sub- 
scribers had  all  left  him,  and  all  the  antislavery 
societies  which  he  had  formed  in  the  slave  States 
had  been  disbanded.  He  then  went  to  Philadel- 
phia and  started  another  paper,  but  he  failed  to 
prosper.  Misfortune  followed  misfortune,  until  in 
a  few  years,  overwhelmed  by  poverty  and  disap- 
pointment, and  exhausted  by  his  ardent  but  inef- 
fectual work  for  freedom,  he  departed  from  life.* 

It  has  been  unwisely  said  that  Lundy  served  to 
keep  the  antislavery  torch  burning,  until  Garrison 
could  take  it  from  his  hand  and  bear  it  onward. 
Before  Lundy's  death,  his  torch  of  antislavery  had 
been  extinguished,  and  was  never  borne  by  Garri- 
son, its  extinguisher,  or  any  one,  thereafter.  The 
latter-day  fanatics  had  no  wish  for  torches  to  light 
their  path ;  they  wanted  only  the  missiles  and 
weapons  of  anarchy.  Such  methods  cannot  with 
any  reason  be  called  a  continuation  of  Lundy's 
work.  His  work  was  destroyed,  not  continued. 


*  Earle's  "Life  of  Benjamin  Lundy."  Greeley's  "  Great  Amer- 
ican Conflict." 


"PLAUSIBLE  RASCALITY."  81 

After  his  liberation  from  prison,  Garrison  wan- 
dered about  for  several  months,  smarting  under 
the  indignities  and  penalties  which  his  disregard  of 
law  had  brought  upon  him.  From  that  time  he 
vowed  vengeance  against  slave-holders,  and  was 
planning  methods  to  make  his  vengeance  keenly 
felt.  At  length  he  reached  Boston,  and  started  the 
Liberator — the  arsenal  in  which  he  was  to  manu- 
facture and  store  his  vengeful  missiles.  In  its  first 
number  he  employed  the  same  vituperative  and 
mandatory  style  which  for  thirty  years  character- 
ized that  disloyal  and  vindictive  sheet.  He  said : 

"A  greater  revolution  in  public  sentiment  is  to  be  effected  in 
the  free  States,  particularly  in  New  England,  than  at  the  South. 
.  .  .  Let  Southern  oppressors  tremble!  Let  their  Northern  apol- 
ogists tremble!  ...  On  this  subject  I  do  not  wish  to  speak  or 
write  with  moderation." 

Samuel  Eliot,  in  his  "History  of  the  United  /* 
States,"  page  369,  gives  an  accurate  account  of  the       \ 
early  antislavery  movement,  and  its  obstruction 
by  Garrison,  as  follows : 

"In  the  history  of  the  movement  against  slavery  in  the  United 
States,  two  periods  are  easily  observed.  The  first  is  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Government  to  1831,  during  which  antislavery 
meant  opposition  to  an  evil  from  which  all  parts  of  the  country 
were  suffering,  and  to  the  relief  of  which  all  must  contribute. 
Slavery  was  to  be  removed  gradually,  and  with  compensation  to 
the  owners  of  slaves  who  might  be  emancipated.  As  a  general 
rule,  societies  were  the  instruments  to  be  employed  in  bringing 
about  the  desired  results,  the  subject  being  too  delicate  or  too 
vast,  or  both,  for  individual  action.  All  this  changes  in  the  sec- 
ond period,  from  1831  forward.  Slavery  is  the  sin  for  which 
those  only  who  tolerate  it  are  to  pay  the  penalty;  it  is  to  be  wiped 
4* 


83  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

out  at  once,  and  without  compensating  those  who  have  upheld 
it;  and  as  its  abolition  is  to  be  effected  only  at  great  risks  and  in 
defiance  of  powerful  traditions,  it  must  be  the  work  of  individ- 
uals, who,  though  combined  in  associations,  are  mostly  engaged 
in  individual  action.  It  was  a  natural  consequence  of  this  con- 
trast that  while  the  South  co-operated  in  antislavery  movements 
before  1831  it  set  itself  against  them  afterwards.  Of  144  anti- 
slavery  societies  in  1826,  106  were  Southern.  Of  the  compara- 
tively few  ten  years  later,  all  were  Northern.  .  .  .  '  The  grand 
rally  ing -point,' according  to  Garrison  and  his  associates,  was 
the  repeal  of  the  Union.  Other  repeals  were  proposed;  that  of 
the  pulpit,  which  had  not  thundered  as  it  ought  against  slavery; 
that  of  the  churches,  which  had  not  forced  their  pulpits  to  thun- 
der. These  passionate  demands  threw  back  Abolitionism,  instead 
of  advancing  it.  Men  willing  to  act  against  slavery  were  not 
willing  to  act  against  their  country  or  their  church,  and  instead 
of  becoming  Abolitionists  they  became  anti- Abolitionists.  An- 
other party  would  have  to  be  formed  to  take  the  lead,  and  this 
could  not  be  done  in  a  day." 

To  accomplish  the  grand  results  laid  down  in 
their  programme,  the  Garrisonites  proposed  to 
make  use  of  "  moral  influence  only."  The  hypoc- 
risy of  this  pretence  is  admirably  shown  in  volume 
four  of  Schouler's  History,  page  216,  as  follows : 

"They  had  deluged  the  South  with  incendiary  pamphlets, 
whose  tendency,  whether  they  so  meant  it  or  not,  was  to  excite 
the  slaves  to  rise  against  their  masters.  This  latter  appeal  to 
terrorism  was  the  device  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society, 
which  set  aside  a  large  sum  of  money  to  circulate  gratuitously 
their  seditious  writings  where  it  was  death  to  distribute  them 
openly.  Tracts  and  periodicals  printed  expressly  for  this  pur- 
pose, with  pictures  even  more  inflammatory  than  the  text  they 
illustrated — the  master  with  scourge  in  his  hand  and  his  victim 
at  his  feet — were  struck  off  by  the  thousand,  some  printed  on 
cheap  muslin  handkerchiefs,  and  deposited  in  the  mail  for  the 
South.  The  best  antislavery  statesmen,  such  as  Adams,  have 


INCITING  SERVILE  WAR.  83 

believed  that  the  purpose  was  incendiary;  and  though  agitators 
denied  that  they  intended  more  than  to  reach  the  conscience  of 
Southern  legislators,  this  denial  was  not  accepted;  denying  that 
they  sent  such  documents  to  the  slaves,  they  tacitly  confessed 
mailing  them  to  free  blacks.  The  grave  charge,  never  explicitly 
denied  by  them,  that  this  was  an  experiment  to  terrify  the  mas- 
ters by  kindling  a  new  insurrection  among  the  blacks,  was  made 
and  reiterated  by  our  whole  people,  and  the  Abolitionists  were 
deterred  from  trying  such  methods  again." 

Had  these  incendiaries  been  successful  in  their 
attempts  to  incite  a  servile  war,  they  would  have 
inflicted  a  much  greater  wrong  upon  the  slaves  than 
upon  their  masters.  They  appear,  however,  to  have 
desired  to  demonstrate  with  characteristic  logic 
their  love  for  the  African  by  making  him  a  mur- 
derer. 

If  their  gusty  fury  had  only  possessed  cyclonic 
power,  they  would  have  wrecked  the  Government, 
abolished  the  pulpit  and  the  church,  and  shattered 
into  fragments  the  civilization  of  this  continent. 

It  has  been  wisely  provided  that  infants  are  not 
Samsons. 

Koosevelt,  in  his  "Life  of  Benton,"  page  159, 
says : 

"  The  antislavery  outburst  in  the  Northern  States  over  the  ad- 
mission of  Missouri  took  place  a  dozen  years  before  there  was  an 
Abolition  society  in  existence,  and  the  influence  of  the  profes- 
sional Abolitionists  upon  the  grdwth  of  the  antislavery  sen- 
timent as  often  as  not  merely  warped  it  and  twisted  it  out  of 
proper  shape — as  when  they  adopted  disunion  views,  although 
it  was  self-evident  that  by  no  possibility  could  slavery  be  abol- 
ished unless  the  Union  was  preserved." 

The  natural  hostility  to  slavery  which  had  al- 
ways characterized  the  North  was  aggravated  from 


84  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

time  to  time  by  some  new  aggression  of  the  Slave 
Power.  The  increased  antislavery  zeal  thus  secured 
was  invariably  claimed  by  Garrison  and  his  friends 
as  the  result  of  their  own  agitation.  Nothing  could 
be  further  from  the  truth.  Sensible  men  of  all 
parties  and  of  all  religious  beliefs  were  unanimous 
in  the  expression  that  these  agitators  had  much  re- 
tarded the  development  and  "effectiveness  of  the 
practical  antislavery  sentiment  of  the  country. 
There  are  numerous  and  illustrious  examples  of 
such  opinions,  some  of  which  are  here  presented ; 
first,  extracts  from  a  sermon  preached  in  Hartford 
in  1839  by  Kev.  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  as  follows : 

"I  turn,  on  the  other  hand,  to  our  antislavery  brethren,  and 
say,  do  not  regard  yourselves  too  hastily  as  the  beginning  of  a 
movement  for  liberty,  or  assume  too  much  consequence  to  your- 
selves in  the  organization  you  have  raised  up.  Neither  conclude 
too  hastily  that  what  you  are  doing  is  a  real  advantage.  The 
destruction  of  slavery  will  be  accomplished,  either  with  you  or 
without  you  ;  or,  if  you  make  it  necessary,  in  spite  of  you. 
There  is  a  law  in  the  case  above  you  and  above  us  all.  The 
river  has  been  in  motion  for  ages,  with  a  deep,  strong,  broad- 
sweeping  current.  You  may  disturb  the  clearness  of  its  waters, 
you  may  pump  off  some  of  it  into  by-trenches  and  ponds,  but 
still  it  will  flow  on  in  its  predestined  course,  in  the  power  and 
undiverted  majesty  of  Him  who  bids  it  flow.  .  .  . 

"  Instead  of  beginning  in  the  proper  way,  your  first  movement 
here  at  the  North  was  a  rank  onset  and  explosion.  .  .  . 

"  The  first  sin  of  this  organization  was  a  sin  of  ill-manners. 
They  did  not  go  to  work  like  Christian  gentlemen.  They  went 
to  work  much  as  if  they  were  going  to  drive  the  masters  as  they 
do  their  negroes.  The  great  convention  which  met  at  Philadel- 
phia drew  up  a  declaration  of  their  sentiments,  in  which  they 
visibly  affected  the  style  and  tone  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. .  .  .  And  yet  it  is  coupled  with  a  sort  of  effect ;  I 
hardly  know  whether  to  call  it  sad  or  ludicrous  when  you  figure 


DR.  BUSHNELL'S  VIEWS.  85 

to  yourselves  a  body  of  men  gathered  in  solemn  convention  at 
Philadelphia,  and  declaring  independence,  as  it  were,  for  slavery! 
— an  act  exactly  fitted  to  alienate  every  friend  they  had  or  could 
have  had  at  the  South,  and  shut  his  lips  forever;  an  act  by 
which  they  wilfully  and  boorishly  cast  off  the  whole  South  from 
them,  and  kindled  against  themselves  a  flame  of  madness  so  hot 
as  to  exclude  all  approach,  and  create  an  embargo  against  all 
their  arguments.  .  .  . 

"  There  is  no  probability  that  we  shall  ever  join  with  you. 
And  do  not  think  that  it  is  mere  ignorance  which  at  present 
keeps  us  from  doing  it.  I  believe  that  I  have  watched  your 
movement  and  known  it  as  well  as  most  of  you  have  done  your- 
selves; but  never  for  a  moment  have  I  been  impressed  with  any 
feeling  of  obligation  except  the  obligation  not  to  unite  with  your 
societies.  I  never  could  have  done  it  without  a  violation  of  my 
conscience  and  better  judgment.  .  .  .  New  England  still  is,  at 
bottom,  thoroughly  opposed  to  slavery.  And  though  it  may 
seem  strange  to  you,  I  will  affirm  without  scruple  that  liberty  in 
every  form,  and  not  least  in  the  abolition  of  slavery,  is  a  popular 
doctrine.  Our  fathers  and  all  our  statesmen  of  the  old  type 
were  Abolitionists.  Could  you  ask  a  stronger  evidence  than  that 
they  abolished  slavery  themselves?  .  .  . 

"There  is  in  New  England  a  deep  and  settled  opposition  to 
slavery,  and  nothing  is  wanting  but  to  let  it  forth.  Your  soci- 
ety is  now  the  greatest  obstacle  to  its  manifestation.  .  .  .  But 
how  is  this?  you  inquire;  have  not  we  ourselves  called  out  res- 
olutions on  this  subject  in  the  Legislatures  of  Vermont,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Connecticut?  You  are  in  danger,  I  reply,  of  taking 
more  to  yourselves  in  this  matter  than  you  ought.  You  know 
very  well  that  these  Legislatures  do  not  regard  you  or  your 
measures,  as  a  society,  with  favor.  They  deprecate  your  course, 
they  disclaim  all  fellowship  with  you  in  the  very  act  of  voting. 
When  you  understand  this,  you  may  readily  guess  that  it  is  not 
your  society  which,  all  at  once,  has  made  them  friends  of  liberty. 
They  speak  not  with  your  voice,  but  with  the  ancient  spirit  of 
New  England;  they  move  not  in  your  line,  but  in  their  own, 
with  a  hearty  repugnance  to  your  alliance.  .  .  . 

"And  now  I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  the  ministry  of 
New  England,  together  with  the  better  class  of  public  men  gen- 
erally, are  ready  to  take  their  stand  practically  and  soberly  for 


86  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

the  abolition  of  slavery.  Our  Legislatures,  you  perceive,  arc 
willing  to  vote  opinions  which  look  that  way.  But  mark,  while 
this  is  true,  there  is  no  disposition  manifested  to  fall  into  your 
strain  of  action  or  to  become  identified  with  the  odium  unneces- 
sarily attracted  by  your  movement.  They  would  feel,  in  fact, 
that  an  identification  with  your  society  would  be  only  throwing 
themselves  into  the  worst  possible  position  for  acting  with  ef- 
fect. .  .  . 

"If  you  wish  to  put  a  man  of  real  weight  quite  out  of  the 
way,  to  hide  him,  or  make  his  name  a  cipher  as  regards  this 
question,  you  need  only  put  him  into  an  antislavery  association. 
He  will  lie  there  sweltering  under  the  heated  mass  of  numbers, 
like  the  giant  under  ^Etna,  and  by  men  as  little  felt  or  regarded." 

Not  less  forcible  than  the  above  views  of  Dr. 
Bushnell  are  the  following  criticisms  of  Dr.  Will- 
iam E.  Channing.  No  one  can  accuse  either  of 
these  loyal,  patriotic,  and  eminent  divines  of  preju- 
dice or  of  undue  severity. 

"The  Abolitionists  have  done  wrong,  I  believe;  nor  is  their 
wrong  to  be  winked  at,  because  done  fanatically  or  with  good 
intention;  for  how  much  mischief  may  be  wrought  by  good  de- 
sign? They  have  fallen  into  the  common  error  of  enthusiasts, 
that  of  taking  too  narrow  views,  of  feeling  that  no  evil  existed 
but  that  which  they  opposed,  and  as  if  no  guilt  could  be  com- 
pared with  that  of  countenancing  or  upholding  it.  The  tone  of 
their  newspapers,  as  far  as  I  have  seen  them,  has  often  been 
fierce,  bitter,  exasperating.  .  .  .  One  of  their  errors  has  been  the 
adoption  of  '  Immediate  Emancipation '  as  their  motto.  To  this 
they  owe  not  a  little  of  their  unpopularity.  .  .  .  Another  objection 
to  their  movement  is  that  they  have  sought  to  accomplish  their 
objects  by  a  system  of  agitation ;  that  is,  by  a  system  of  affiliated 
societies,  gathered  and  held  together  and  extended  by  passionate 
eloquence.  .  .  .  The  adoption  of  the  common  system  of  agitation 
by  the  Abolitionists  has  not  been  justified  by  success.  From  the 
beginning  it  created  alarm  in  the  considerate,  and  strengthened 
the  sympathies  of  the  free  States  with  the  slave-holder.  It  made 
converts  of  a  few  individuals,  but  alienated  multitudes.  Its  in- 


FEELING  WITHOUT  ACTION  A  CURSE.  87 

fluence  at  the  South  has  been  almost  wholly  evil.  It  has  stirred 
up  bitter  passions  and  a  fierce  fanaticism  which  have  shut  every 
ear  and  every  heart  against  its  arguments  and  persuasions. 
These  effects  are  more  to  be  deplored,  because  the  hope  of  free- 
dom to  the  slave  lies  chiefly  in  the  disposition  of  his  master. 
The  Abolitionist  proposed,  indeed,  to  convert  the  slave-holders; 
and  for  this  end  he  approached  them  with  vituperation  and  ex- 
hausted on  them  the  vocabulary  of  reproach.  And  he  has  reaped 
as  he  sowed.  .  .  .  Thus,  with  good  purposes,  nothing  seems  to 
have  been  gained.  Perhaps  (though  I  am  anxious  to  repel  the 
thought)  something  has  been  lost  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and 
humanity.  .  .  . 

"There  is  a  great  dread  in  this  part  of  the  country  that  the 
union  of  the  States  may  be  dissolved  by  the  conflict  about  slavery. 
To  avert  this  evil  every  sacrifice  should  be  made  but  that  of 
honor,  freedom,  and  principle.  No  one  prizes  the  Union  more 
than  myself.  Perhaps  I  may  say  that  I  am  attached  to  it  by  no 
common  love.  Most  men  value  the  Union  as  a  Means;  to  me  it 
is  an  End.  Most  would  preserve  it  for  the  prosperit}r  of  which 
it  is  the  instrument;  I  love  and  would  preserve  it  for  its  own 
sake." 


One  very  great  error  in  the  methods  of  these  Ab- 
olitionists was  the  constant  effort  to  stimulate  feel- 
ing upon  the  slavery  question  without  suggesting 
any  practical  action.  In  all  their  annual,  semi-an- 
nual, and  quarterly  conventions,  as  well  as  in  their 
numerous  antislavery  bazaars,  the  most  fiery,  furi- 
ous, and  passionate  of  their  orators  pictured  blood- 
hounds, auction  -  blocks,  manacles,  and  whipping- 
posts. Tears  and  wailing  were  the  result.  The 
only  action  they  proposed  was  utterly  impossi- 
ble :  the  destruction  of  the  Government,  the  over- 
throw of  the  Constitution,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  and  the  abolition  of  the  pulpit  and  the 
church.  All  this  intensely  stimulated  feeling,  cut 


88  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

off  from  action,  resulted  in  inability  to  act.  That 
such  would  be  tlie  inevitable  result,  they  might 
have  learned  from  any  sound  work  on  mental  and 
moral  philosophy.  But  disregarding  every  admo- 
nition, whether  of  science  or  experience,  they  al- 
lowed their  sentimental  intoxication  to  develop 
into  emotional  insanity  or  chronic  monomania. 
They  could  see  but  one  sin  in  all  the  world,  and 
that  was  slavery.  This  they  would  abolish  imme- 
diately, with  no  care  for  ruinous  results.  Their 
"plausible  rascality,"  without  one  glimmer  of 
statesmanship,  or  one  impulse  of  patriotism,  was 
ever  in  harmony  with  disunion  and  anarchy.  Their 
morbid  fancy  had  devoured  their  strength. 

"And  like  the  bat  of  Indian  brakes, 
Her  pinions  fan  the  wound  she  makes; 
And  soothing  thus  the  dreamer's  pains, 
She  drinks  the  life-blood  from  his  veins." 

As  a  substitute  for  action,  however,  they  passed 
resolutions.  In  this  industry  they  excelled,  by  far, 
all  other  people  whether  secular  or  religious.  There 
was  a  race  of  prehistoric  men  whom  ethnologists 
call  the  "Mound-builders."  The  best  descriptive 
term  for  the  Garrison  Abolitionists  would  be  the 
"  resolution-builders."  They  never  came  any  nearer 
to  the  attainment  of  an  object  than  to  pass  a  reso- 
lution about  it,  and  have  it  recorded  in  the  Liber- 
ator, the  birthplace  and  sepulchre  of  all  their  hopes, 
purposes,  and  aspirations. 

When  there  were  twenty  thousand  people  in 
Kansas,  Mr.  Garrison  said,  "  Among  all  the  people 


NO  ABOLITIONISTS  IN  KANSAS.  89 

who  have  emigrated  to  that  country  there  is 
scarcely  one  Abolitionist."  Yery  true,  and  very 
fortunate  that  it  was  true.  I  knew  of  several 
young  men  who  joined  our  colonies  after  having 
wasted  all  their  energies  in  sighing  and  weeping 
for  "  the  poor  slave ;"  but  they  all  returned  before 
reaching  the  Territory.  After  a  few  months'  ex- 
perience in  raising  colonies  I  advised  all  these 
tearful  specimens  to  stay  at  home.  The  best  and 
most  trustworthy  emigrants  in  the  cause  of  free 
Kansas  were  of  the  old  "Whig  and  Democratic  par- 
ties. They  hated  slavery  as  much  as  any  one,  but 
they  had  not  exhausted  their  strength  in  deploring 
the  "  great  sin  of  slavery."  They  knew  it  was  a 
great  curse  to  the  country,  and  were  desirous  of 
ending  it,  if  it  could  be  done  according  to  law  and 
without  the  loss  of  the  Union.  They  used  but  few 
words,  but  they  meant  all  they  said.  They  went 
to  Kansas  to  make  a  free  State,  and  they  made  it. 
But  how  the  Abolitionists  of  the  Garrison  school 
denounced  them,  when  at  the  convention  at  Big 
Springs  in  1855  they  voted  unanimously  that  when 
Kansas  should  become  a  State  there  should  be  no 
negroes  in  it,  either  slave  or  free !  At  the  next  free- 
State  convention,  held  in  Lawrence,  they  voted 
the  same  way.  Again  at  Topeka  they  repeated 
what  they  had  twice  affirmed.  Of  course  no  Abo- 
litionist could  have  done  this,  neither  could  any 
Liberty  party  man ;  hardly  any  Free-soiler.  But 
it  was  policy  at  that  time  to  vote  as  they  did. 
There  were  many  people  from  the  South  there. 
They  were  poor,  and  had  never  owned  slaves ;  but 


90  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

their  prejudice  against  free  negroes  was  much 
greater  than  against  slavery.  If  there  were  to  be 
no  free  negroes  in  Kansas,  they  were  free -State 
men ;  if  there  were  to  be  free  negroes  there,  they 
were  slave-State  men.  By  this  policy  of  our  dis- 
creet pioneers  from  the  North — members  of  the 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties — more  than  half  of 
the  settlers  in  Kansas  from  the  slave  States  became 
free-State  men,  and  in  unison  with  our  own  emi- 
grants from  the  free  States. 

In  my  sixty  thousand  miles  of  travel  in  raising 
Kansas  colonies  I  was  never  rebuked  for  my  meth- 
ods and  arguments  but  once,  and  that  opposition 
occurred  in  Montpelier,  Vermont.  I  had  addressed 
a  very  large  audience  in  the  largest  hall  in  the  place 
for  two  hours.  I  had  dwelt  upon  the  bad  economy 
of  slavery,  and  recommended  to  such  in  the  meet- 
ing as  might  go  to  Kansas  to  make  friends  of  the 
poor  whites  who  came  there  from  the  South,  and 
to  show  them,  from  the  United  States  census,  how 
much  more  their  quarter  sections  would  be  worth 
in  a  free  State  than  they  would  be  in  a  slave  State ; 
also  what  a  difference  there  would  be  in  educa- 
tional advantages,  in  the  mechanic  arts,  and  in  all 
that  civilized  man  esteems  valuable.  You,  I  said, 
like  our  colonists  now  there,  are  to  be  the  mission- 
aries of  free  labor,  and  are  to  build  up  the  noblest 
of  all  our  free  States  in  the  very  centre  of  the  re- 
public. 

I  had  just  concluded  when  a  venerable  man  of 
seventy  years  or  more  arose  in  the  audience,  and 
said : 


ABOLITION  HOSTILITY.  91 

"  I  have  listened  with  deep  humiliation — yes,  I  may  say  with 
extreme  mortification,  to  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Thayer,  in  favor 
of  making  Kansas  a  free  State.  The  methods  which  he  uses 
and  which  he  urges  his  emigrants  to  adopt  are  exceedingly  re- 
pulsive to  me.  He  has  told  us  how  he  makes  his  emigrants  mis- 
sionaries of  freedom.  I  consider  them  missionaries  of  mammon. 
They  are  to  show  the  Southerners  that  it  will  pay  better  to  es- 
tablish freedom  in  Kansas.  I  protest  against  lowering  our  glori- 
ous standard  of  Liberty  to  such  base  expedients.  I  would  a 
thousand  times  prefer  that  Kansas  should  be  a  slave  State  rather 
than  be  a  free  State  for  any  other  reason  than  'his,  that  slavery 
is  a  sin  against  God." 


The  unhappy  man  seemed  to  have  no  supporters 
in  the  meeting,  for  no  one  applauded  and  many 
hissed.  After  a  few  minutes  they  called  for  me.  I 
simply  said  that  I  should  enter  into  no  controver- 
sy with  the  venerable  gentleman  who  had  spoken, 
since  it  would  be  a  very  unfair  encounter,  as  the  au- 
dience seemed  to  favor  me  and  oppose  him.  But  I 
still  adhered  to  my  methods,  and  would  prefer  to 
see  Kansas  a  free  State  for  the  worst  reasons,  rath- 
er than  a  slave  State  for  the  best  reasons. 

The  professed  Garrisonites  were  not  the  only 
writers  and  speakers  who  strove  to  intensify  feel- 
ing against  slavery,  without  even  suggesting  any 
practical  action.  All  such  writers  and  speakers  did 
great  harm.  A  boy  or  girl  who  weeps  over  the 
misery  described  in  a  dime  novel  is  very  much 
weakened  for  all  really  charitable  work.  Hence 
hundreds  of  writers,  both  of  prose  and  poetry, 
weakened  the  effective  antislavery  work  of  the 
country,  and  destroyed  to  a  great  extent  vigorous 
manhood  by  stimulating  feelings  which  had  noth- 


92  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ing  to  do  but  to  corrode  and  destroy  their  own  ten- 
ements. The  trustworthy  and  effective  men  in  the 
great  pivotal  contest  against  slavery  upon  the  prai- 
ries of  Kansas  were  those  who  had  not  worn  them- 
selves out  in  direful  apprehensions  or  wasted  their 
strength  in  exhausting  pity.  They  never  had  said, 
"  Slavery  has  always  had  its  own  way,  and  always 
will  have  it."  They  believed  that  God  had  made 
freedom  stronger  than  slavery,  and  that  now,  since 
politicians  had  nothing  more  to  do  with  this  mat- 
ter, it  was  wise  for  the  people  to  make  an  honest 
and  exhaustive  test  of  the  comparative  strength  of 
these  two  forces  in  Kansas.  Before  the  organized 
movement  of  such  men,  slavery  was  like  a  cripple 
assailed  by  Briareus  with  his  hundred  arms. 

It  was  my  custom  in  all  my  addresses  to  dwell 
upon  the  inherent  and  irresistible  power  of  free  la- 
bor, and  to  predict  its  speedy  triumph.  This  confi- 
dence begat  enthusiasm,  and  the  people  responded 
in  large  and  eager  audiences.  They  were  much 
more  interested  in  the  physical  advantages  of  free- 
dom than  in  the  moral  deformity  of  slavery. 

From  what  has  already  been  said,  the  thoughtful 
reader  will  readily  understand  how  these  disunion- 
ists  were  prepared  by  their  training  to  despise  all 
practical  men  and  all  feasible  measures.  It  was 
one  of  their  foibles  to  assume  that  they  had  "  pre- 
empted "  the  slavery  question,  and  that  nobody  else 
had  any  business  with  it.  Hence,  when  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  was  organized  and  put  into  successful 
operation,  they  tried  by  speeches  and  writing,  by 
ridicule  and  argument,  to  make  its  work  abortive. 


SCHOULER'S  VIEWS.  93 

It  was  great  good-fortune,  however,  for  the  cause 
of  freedom  in  Kansas  that  this  class  of  men  opposed 
it.  Had  they  favored  it,  all  the  prospects  of  its 
success  would  have  been  destroyed  at  the  outset. 
Very  few  people  could  have  been  induced  to  work 
with  them  under  any  circumstances.  Had  they 
advocated  slavery  for  as  many  years  as  they  advo- 
cated disunion,  and  with  the  same  blind  intensity 
and  malignity,  they  might  have  crippled  even  that 
robust  institution.  From  their  very  natures  they 
could  not  be  coworkers  with  the  people  in  any 
cause.  They  were  malignant  spirits,  at  war  with 
everybody. 

They  are  well  described  by  Schouler,  in  his  last 
work,  as  follows : 

"  They  were  not  actors  in  affairs,  but  agitators,  critics,  come- 
outers,  coiners  of  cutting  epithets,  "who  scourged  men  in  public 
station  with  as  little  mercy  as  ever  the  slave-driver  did  his  vic- 
tim, less  pleased  that  their  work  was  being  done  than  displeased 
because  it  was  not  done  faster.  Their  political  blunders  widened 
the  breach  between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  their  constant 
instigation  was  to  throttle  that  law  which  was  the  breath  of  our 
being — to  trample  down  the  Union,  rather  than  convert,  con- 
strain, or  conquer  slavery  behind  the  shield  of  the  Constitution. 
This  was  because  of  their  fanaticism.  Not  one  leader  of  this 
school  ever  took  a  responsible  part  in  affairs,  or  co-operated  in 
lawful  and  practical  measures  for  promoting  the  reform  they 
caressed  in  their  preaching." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   ABOLITIONISTS    AND   THE   PLAN   OF   FREEDOM. 

FOE  several  years  past  it  has  been  the  practice 
of  many  thoughtless  and  sentimental  speakers  and 
writers  to  extol  Garrison  and  Phillips  for  work 
wrhich  they  had  no  hand  in  doing.  In  paroxysms 
of  grotesque  eulogy  rivalling  the  wildest  utterances 
of  the  ancient  pythoness  at  Delphi,  these  Will-o'- 
the-wisp  luminaries  dazzle,  confound,  and  mislead 
the  people,  their  own  heated  imaginations  suppty- 
ing  fancies  instead  of  facts. 

The  repeated  confessions  of  these  disunionists 
that  they  had  achieved  no  success  is  reinforced  by 
the  most  authoritative  testimony  of  eminent  states- 
men and  journalists.  The  Kansas  contest  was 
caused  by  the  new  methods  of  migration,  under 
the  guiding  and  protecting  power  of  a  strong  com- 
pany adapted  to  this  special  work.  This  company 
was  in  favor  of  law  and  the  Union.  For  that  rea- 
son it  was  naturally  hated  by  the  disunionists,  but 
especially  because  it  had  determined  to  overthrow 
slavery  in  its  own  way  and  by  its  own  methods, 
without  even  asking  their  advice  or  co-operation. 

While  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  was  by  its 
operations  creating  a  well-founded  alarm  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  was  receiving  the  cominenda- 


UNFOUNDED  PRETENSIONS.  95 

tion  and  gratitude  of  every  true  lover  of  freedom 
for  the  practical  results  it  had  accomplished,  let  us 
see  how  it  was  regarded  by  that  peculiar  clique. 
At  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, and  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
these  men  had  been  absolutely  silent ;  and  in  the 
period  of  gloom  and  despair  at  the  North  that  fol- 
lowed that  iniquity,  they  had  no  words  either  of 
counsel,  of  encouragement,  or  of  commiseration  to 
offer.  No  sooner,  however,  was  a  feasible  plan  of 
retrieving  the  disaster  set  forth,  than  Mr.  Garrison 
and  his  associates  opened  their  batteries  of  vituper- 
ation upon  it  and  its  authors,  as  they  had  always 
assailed  every  feasible  measure,  and  everybody  who 
proposed  to  do  something  for  the  cause  of  freedom ; 
and  as  they  continued  to  assail  everybody  and  ev- 
erything except  disunion,  until,  in  spite  of  them  and 
without  their  aid,  the  great  object  was  achieved. 
Then  they  and  their  admirers  turned  about  and 
coolly  said,  "We  did  all  this  ourselves !"  The  pres- 
ent generation  has,  in  consequence  of  the  persistent 
clack  and  endless  scribbling  of  that  class,  come  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Garrison  was  the  Alpha  and  Ome- 
ga of  the  antislavery  struggle,  and  that  he  and  his 
small  party  of  followers  were  the  leaders  and  direct- 
ors of  the  great  movement  that  brought  about  the 
overthrow  of  slavery.  These  men  and  women  have 
never  exhibited  any  diffidence  or  modesty  in  sound- 
ing their  own  praises.  They  formed  a  mutual  ad- 
miration society  possessed  by  an  unusual  malignity 
towards  those  who  did  not  belong  to  it ;  yet,  not 
content  with  fighting  the  outside  world,  they  fre- 


96  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

quently  snarled  and  quarrelled  among  themselves, 
and  attempted  to  destroy  each  other.  The  perse- 
cution they  endured  was  not  on  account  of  the 
antislavery  principles  they  maintained.  It  was  their 
abusive  and  insulting  manner,  and  particularly  their 
offensive  obtrusion  of  the  unpopular  and  unpatriotic 
doctrines  of  secession  and  disunion  upon  every  occa- 
sion, that  principally  excited  the  passions  of  the  mob. 

In  fact,  the  little  company  of  Abolitionists  had 
come  to  be  despised  at  the  North,  and  they  were 
neglected  and  shunned  by  the  better  element  for 
the  reasons  above  given.  Almost  invariably,  in 
presenting  my  plan  of  emigration,  the  question 
would  come,  Has  Garrison  anything  to  do  with 
this  ?  Is  there  any  taint  of  Abolitionism  in  it  ?  I 
had  to  assure  my  hearers  that  it  was  entirely  free 
from  that  objectionable  element.  However,  as  Mr. 
Garrison  and  his  friends  have  been  elevated  into 
such  a  prominent  position,  and  as  an  exaggerated 
and  distorted  idea  of  their  services  largely  prevails, 
some  even  believing  that  they  aided  in  the  saving 
of  Kansas,  it  is  proper  for  me  to  show  here  in  what 
manner  they  viewed  an  undertaking  which  had  for 
its  object  the  extermination  of  slavery  by  peace- 
ful, lawful,  and  practical  methods,  and  how  they 
treated  those  who  honestly  and  earnestly  gave  to 
it  their  support.  The  following  extracts  and  quo- 
tations will  show  their  kind  of  wisdom  and  power 
of  prophecy : 

In  the  Massachusetts  A.  A.  S.  Convention  (May, 
1854),  Henry  C.  Wright  offered  the  following  reso- 
lution, which  was  passed : 


REVOLUTION  ADVOCATED.  97 

' '  That  should  the  Government  succeed  in  its  present  plan  to 
abolish  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  to  throw  open  all  the  vast 
public  domain  to  slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  we  consider  that 
the  time  has  fully  come  for  the  people  to  practically  assert  the 
right  of  revolution." 

Here,  in  1854,  before  the  passage  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  we  have  a  very  striking  specimen  of 
what  John  Quincy  Adams  called  "the  plausible 
rascality  of  Garrison  and  the  Non-resistant  Aboli- 
tionists." Years  before,  they  were  using  what  they 
called  "  moral  suasion,"  to  secure  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  They  had  said  that  their  appeals  were 
to  the  "  moral  sense  "  of  the  free  States.  Instead 
of  approval,  our  people,  almost  without  exception, 
gave  to  such  appeals  extreme  opposition  and  bitter 
denunciation.  Now,  however,  since  these  appeals 
had  proved  a  complete  failure,  the  disunionists  were 
ready  to  proclaim  open  war  against  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Between  these  two  methods  there  was  little  room 
for  choice.  Either  would  have  secured  the  perma- 
nent triumph  of  the  Slave  Power,  and  the  utter 
humiliation  and  subserviency  of  the  North  for  an 
indefinite  period.  We  are  well  able  to  judge,  since 
the  war,  whether  the  General  Government  had 
power  to  coerce  a  State  and  maintain  its  own  au- 
thority. Both  of  these  proposed  methods  illustrate 
the  statesmanship  of  the  disunionists,  who  never 
saw  any  public  question  in  its  true  light,  and  who 
never  advocated  any  course  of  action  which  would 
not  have  utterly  wrecked  all  the  interests  of  freedom. 

In  defiance,  however,  of  the  "  revolution  "  threat- 
5 


98  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ened  by  a  "  handful  of  despised  Abolitionists,"  con- 
sisting, as  Samuel  Bowles  said,  of  "  indiscreet  men 
and  unsexed  women,"  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill, 
having  passed  both  House  and  Senate,  was  signed 
by  the  President,  and  became  a  law  on  the  30th  of 
May,  1854.  The  charter  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany, which  contained  the  germ  of  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation,  had  been  granted  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature,  and  signed  by  the  Governor 
more  than  a  month  earlier. 

Without  waiting  for  this  legislative  action  I  had 
begun  the  work  of  raising  the  first  Kansas  colony 
as  early  as  the  1st  of  April ;  but  on  account  of  the 
general  gloom  and  despondency,  had  made  but  lit- 
tle progress.  Though  that  colony  was  a  very  small 
one,  numbering  only  twenty-nine,  it  required  more 
work  to  secure  it  than  was  expended  on  any  half- 
dozen  subsequent  Kansas  companies.  My  long  and 
earnest  efforts  in  New  York  and  Massachusetts 
were  rewarded  with  this  apparently  insignificant 
result.  But  however  feeble  in  appearance  was  this 
beginning,  it  was  the  first  organized  physical  resist- 
ance to  the  power  of  slavery  that  this  country  had 
ever  seen.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  that 
combination  which  had  ruled  us  with  a  rod  of  iron 
for  more  than  a  third  of  a  century. 

The  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  success  of  this 
"  new  science  of  emigration  "  were  many  and  great. 
First :  there  was  the  apathy,  gloom,  and  despair  con- 
sequent upon  the  invariable  victory  of  slavery  and 
defeat  of  freedom  in  our  national  legislative  halls 
for  at  least  thirty-five  years. 


FEARS  OF  LOYAL  MEN.  99 

Then  again  it  was  argued  that  we  would  have 
no  chance  of  success  in  the  contest  of  emigration 
proposed,  since  we  were  so  far  from  the  field  of  ac- 
tion, while  the  slave-holders  were  in  great  numbers 
on  the  very  border  of  Kansas. 

In  addition  to  these  difficulties,  which  seemed  to 
many  insurmountable,  there  was  the  terrible  fact 
that  all  the  departments  of  the  Government  were 
in  the  hands  of  our  enemies.  This  was  indeed  a 
great  calamity,  and  made  our  work  difficult  and 
hazardous.  It  was  a  source  of  great  doubt  and  per- 
plexity among  those  who  were  ardently  devoted  to 
the  free-State  cause,  and  was  often  urged  as  an  un- 
answerable argument  against  the  possibility  of  its 
ultimate  triumph. 

It  was  expected  that  the  President  would  appoint 
pro-slavery  officers  for  both  Territories,  and  that  all 
the  power  of  the  Government  would  be  used,  either 
openly  or  secretly,  to  injure  the  free-State  cause, 
and  to  sustain  slavery. 

The  Northern  people  had  not  yet  understood 
how  much  mightier  they  themselves  were  than 
Presidents,  Congresses,  and  Cabinets.  This  great 
fact  they  were  rapidly  learning,  and  soon  became 
quite  indifferent  about  what  the  powers  at  Wash- 
ington might  do,  or  fail  to  do. 

Such  were  the  arguments  of  loyal  and  patriotic 
citizens,  who  were  desirous  of  our  success,  and  who 
were  later  among  the  most  active  supporters  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company.  When  the  great  work  of 
inspiring  faith  and  hope  in  hearts  where  only  gloom 
and  despair  had  dwelt  had  once  reached  these  ob- 


100  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

jectors,  they  joined  in  the  grand  crusade,  and  either 
went  to  Kansas  themselves  or  stimulated  and  aid- 
ed others  to  go. 

But  there  was  another  class,  professing  intense 
hostility  to  slavery,  who  exerted  all  their  power 
to  prevent  our  success ;  I  mean  the  Garrison  dis- 
unionists,  whose  "  eternal  whine  "  had  afflicted  the 
country  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  by  utterly 
disgusting  all  practical  patriots,  and  all  political 
parties,  had  retarded  antislavery  work,  and  to  a 
great  extent  suppressed  all  practical  antislavery 
sentiment.  These  desired  that  Kansas  should  be  a 
slave  State ;  and  said  that  if  it  could  be  made  a 
free  State  (which  they  claimed  was  impossible) "  the 
result  would  be  a  great  injury  to  true  antislavery, 
because  it  would  quiet  the  Northern  conscience 
with  an  apparent  triumph." 

Here  are  two  samples  of  this  "  eternal  whine." 
Annual  statement  adopted  at  the  May  conven- 
tion of  the  A.  A.  S.,  Massachusetts,  1856 : 

' '  Yet  we  cannot  conceal  it  from  ourselves  that  the  too  proba- 
ble result  will  be,  if  Kansas  be  secured  to  freedom,  that  the  vile 
American  spirit  of  compromise  will  take  possession  of  its  coun- 
sels, control  its  internal  affairs,  and  govern  its  intercourse  with 
the  neighboring  slave  States;  while,  as  a  still  more  lamentable 
consequence,  apathy  will  settle  upon  the  whole  Northern  mind, 
satisfied  with  their  seeming  victory,  but  the  end  of  which  will 
be  only  to  invite  fresh  insults  and  aggressions  from  the  South- 
ern despotism.  No!  there  is  no  safety  as  there  is  no  honor  and 
no  right  in  our  union  with  men-stealers.  No  advantage  gained 
while  in  that  fatal  fellowship  can  be  of  any  value." 

The  following,  in  the  same  strain  as  the  above, 
is  an  extract  from  a  sermon  of  Rev.  T.  "W.  Iliggin- 


T.  W.  HIGGINSON.  101 

son,  preached  in  "Worcester,  in  June,  1854,  and  re- 
corded in  the  Liberator  of  June  16th : 

"  Here,  for  instance,  is  the  Nebraska  Emigration  Society:  it  is, 
indeed,  a  noble  enterprise,  and  I  am  proud  that  it  owes  its  ori- 
gin to  a  Worcester  man ;  but  where  is  the  good  of  emigrating  to 
Nebraska,  if  Nebraska  is  to  be  only  11  transplanted  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  original  Massachusetts  has  been  tried  and  found 
wanting?  Will  the  stream  rise  higher  than  its  source?  Settle 
your  Nebraska  ten  years,  and  you  will  have  your  New  England 
harvest  of  corn  and  grain  more  luxuriant  in  that  virgin  soil.  Ah! 
but  will  not  the  other  Massachusetts  crop  come  also,  of  political 
demagogues  and  wire-pullers,  and  a  sectarian  religion,  which 
will  insure  the  passage  of  the  greatest  hypocrite  to  heaven,  if  he 
will  join  the  right  church  before  he  goes?  And  give  the  emi- 
grants twenty  years  more  of  prosperity,  and  then  ask  them,  if 
you  dare,  to  break  the  law,  and  disturb  order,  and  risk  life, 
merely  to  save  their  State  from  the  shame  that  has  just  blighted 
Massachusetts." 

In  reply  to  these  sentimental  puerilities  let  us 
first  examine  the  argument  of  the  "statement," 
and  then  that  of  the  sermon.  The  above  "state- 
ment" was  adopted  in  1856,  after  it  had  become 
apparent  to  all  intelligent  observers  that  the  con- 
test in  Kansas  was  to  be  decided  in  favor  of  free- 
dom, if  the  same  agency  which  had  directed  the 
free-State  cause  up  to  that  time  should  continue  to 
act.  The  Garrisonites  in  the  above  "statement" 
make  two  points  against  the  free  State : 

1st.  It  will  be  a  compromising  State. 

Of  course  this  means,  as  they  had  often  said,  that 
such  a  State  was  worse  than  a  slave  State.  If  Kan- 
sas had  been  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  border 
ruffians,  as  it  would  have  been  without  the  action 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  there  would  have 


102  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

been  (so  they  believed)  an  important  accession  to 
the  disunionists  of  the  North — a  number  of  new 
subscribers  for  the  Liberator,  more  patrons  of  all 
the  antislavery  bazaars,  increased  attendance  upon 
the  annual,  semi-annual,  and  quarterly  disunion  con- 
ventions ;  altogether  constituting  a  pledge  of  pro- 
gressive anarchy  and  of  ultimate  disunion.  To 
make  Kansas  a  free  State  \vas  the  ruin  of  all  these 
hopes  and  aspirations. 

2d.  "  Apathy  will  settle  upon  the  whole  North- 
ern mind,  satisfied  with  their  seeming  victory." 

In  plain  English  they  meant  this:  "If  Kansas 
should  be  made  a  free  State  everybody  will  say 
that  we,  the  disunionists,  are  false  prophets,  for  we 
have  said  a'  thousand  times  that  this  result  could 
not  be  attained.  People  will  then  desert  our  stand- 
ard instead  of  flocking  to  sustain  it.  More  than 
ever  the  North  will  adhere  to  the  Union ;  for  her 
political  power  will  be  assured  for  all  coining  time. 
To  this  consummation  we  can  never  assent.  No 
union  with  man-stealers !  No  fellowship  with  them 
can  be  of  any  value."  This  was  the  a  jyriori  argu- 
ment and  prophecy.  Has  the  result  vindicated 
their  judgment  and  foresight?  Just  as  much  as 
these  qualities  were  vindicated  by  anything  they 
ever  said  or  did  in  their  entire  history.  No  people 
ever  had  more  practice  in  prophesying  than  they ; 
but  practice  brought  neither  perfection  nor  profi- 
ciency. 

This  sermon  of  Rev.  T.  W.  Higginson  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Liberator  thirty-one  days  before  our 
first  colony  left  Boston  for  Kansas.  It  must  be 


T.  W.  HIGGINSON  ANSWERED.  103 

plain  to  the  intelligent  reader  that  its  purpose  was 
to  prevent  our  organized  emigration  to  that  Terri- 
tory. "Where  is  the  good,"  says  the  reverend 
preacher,  "  of  emigrating  to  Nebraska  if  Nebraska 
is  to  be  a  transplanted  Massachusetts,  and  the  orig- 
inal Massachusetts  has  been  tried  and  found  want- 
ing ?"  Was  this  encouraging  talk  to  the  young  men 
who  were  at  that  very  time  proposing  to  join  the 
colony  then  forming  ? 

The  argument  of  the  reverend  gentleman  is  this : 
The  best  it  is  possible  for  you  to  do  is  to  make  an- 
other State  which  will  be  as  bad  as  Massachusetts 
is,  and  therefore  you  had  better  do  nothing  at  all. 
"  The  stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  its  source ;" 
therefore  let  Kansas  alone.  Should  you  succeed  in 
making  her  free,  you  will  find  that  in  thirty  years 
her  people  will  be  patriotic  and  law-abiding  in  pol- 
itics, and  sectarian  in  religion.  To  an  anarchist 
and  come-outer  these  were  insuperable  reasons  why 
Kansas  should  be  left  to  the  Blue  Lodges  of  Mis- 
souri. 

If  made  a  slave  State,  the  fact  might  help  to  fire 
the  Northern  heart  against  the  Union  and  make  it 
more  easy  for  disunionists  to  triumph.  These  are 
fair  and  just  inferences,  made  without  prejudice, 
and  warranted  by  the  argument  of  the  sermon  and 
the  associations  of  the  preacher. 

In  the  Liberator  of  February  1C,  1855,  is  a  letter 
from  its  correspondent,  C.  Stearns,  dated  Lawrence, 
Kansas,  January  20, 1855,  in  which  we  find  this : 

"  It  is  true  we  denounce  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  because 
we  believe  it  to  be  a  great  hindcrance  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and 


104  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

a  mighty  curse  to  the  Territory;  but  we  are  the  only  ones  who 
have  taken  a  decided  ground  on  the  antislavery  question.  I 
have  never  heard  of  the  Lawrence  Association  ever  passing  any 
antislavery  resolutions. 

"Another  point  of  importance  is,  that  this  association,  with 
Robinson  at  its  head,  advocates  brute  force  in  opposing  the  Mis- 
sourians.  Said  Mr.  R.  to  the  marshal,  in  reference  to  some  Mis- 
sourians  arrested  for  threatening  the  Yankees,  '  If  they  fire,  do 
you  make  them  bite  the  dust,  and  I  will  find  coffins.' " 

In  a  letter  one  month  later,  published  in  the  Lib- 
erator of  the  16th  of  March,  1855,  the  same  corre- 
spondent says : 

"Do  not  advise  people  to  emigrate  here  in  companies.  Let 
them  come  very  few  at  a  time.  This  sending  large  companies 
is  a  very  foolish  business  for  many  reasons." 

In  the  above  extracts,  the  hatred  of  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  is  too  apparent  to  need  elucidation. 
The  writer  assails  the  very  methods  of  the  com- 
pany which  gave  us  success.  He  objects  to  our  col- 
onies !  What  could  individual  free-State  men  have 
accomplished  in  Kansas  ? 

The  hostile  purpose  of  the  following  editorial  in 
the  Liberator  of  April  13,  1855,  is  very  apparent. 

"  Read  the  articles  we  have  grouped  together  on  our  first  page, 
illustrative  of  the  demoniacal  pro-slavery  spirit  which  rages  and 
bears  down  all  opposition  in  Kansas  and  Missouri.  .  .  .  Beyond 
a  doubt  the  fate  of  Kansas  is  sealed.  'No  union  with  slave- 
holders.' " 

At  the  date  of  the  above  quotation  our  company 
had  sent  several  flourishing  colonies  to  Kansas, 
and  it  began  to  be  evident  that  by  faithfully  ad- 
hering to  our  "  plan  of  freedom  "  the  entire  North 


ABOLITION  INTIMIDATION.  105 

would  soon  be  united  in  our  support,  insuring  our 
success,  and  making  Kansas  free.  Now,  if  ever,  in- 
timidation must  be  tried  to  frighten  our  colonists 
and  check  the  progress  of  our  work.  So  the  Liber- 
ator devotes  an  entire  page  to  the  grouping  of  all 
the  cock-and-bull  stories  that  could  be  gleaned  from 
every  quarter.  Then,  most  discouraging  of  all,  Mr. 
Garrison  informs  us,  "  Beyond  a  doubt  the  fate  of 
Kansas  is  sealed."  If  he  could  make  our  emigrants 
believe  that,  it  would  be  the  end  of  emigration. 
But  people  had  begun  to  see  the  drift  of  the  dis- 
union talk,  and  to  understand  that  the  owner  of 
the  Liberator  desired  that  Kansas  should  be  a  slave 
State,  to  give  aid  and  comfort  to  his  pet  scheme  of 
disunion.  The  concluding  refrain  proves  this.  "  No 
union  with  slave-holders !" 

In  another  paper  Mr.  Garrison  says,  in  substance : 
Kansas  cannot  be  made  a  free  State,  and  even  if  it 
should  be,  such  a  result  would  be  a  great  injury  to 
the  antislavery  cause,  for  the  reason  that  it  would 
quiet  the  Northern  conscience.  The  following  is 
from  the  Liberator  (editorial)  of  June  1, 1855  : 

"Will  Kansas  be  a  free  State?  We  answer  No.  Not  while 
the  existing  Union  stands.  Its  fate  is  settled.  We  shall  briefly 
state  some  of  the  reasons  which  force  us  to  this  sad  conclusion. 

"  1.  The  South  is  united  in  the  determination  to  make  Kansas 
a  slave  State — ultimately,  by  division,  half  a  dozen  slave  States, 
if  necessary.  She  has  never  yet  been  foiled  in  her  purposes  thus 
concentrated  and  expressed,  and  she  has  too  much  at  Btake  to 
allow  free  speech,  a  free  press,  and  free  labor,  to  hold  the  mas- 
tery in  that  Territory. 

"2.  Eastern  emigration  will  avail  nothing  to  keep  slavery  out 
of  Kansas.  We  have  never  had  any  faith  in  it  as  a  breakwater 
5* 


100  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

against  the  inundation  of  the  dark  waters  of  oppression.  Ilard- 
]y  an  Abolitionist  can  be  found  among  all  who  have  emigrated 
to  that  country.  Undoubtedly  the  mass  of  emigrants  are  in  fa- 
vor of  making  Kansas  a  free  State,  as  a  matter  of  sound  policy, 
and  would  do  so  if  they  were  not  under  the  dominion  of  Mis- 
souri ruffianism,  or  if  they  could  rely  upon  the  sympathy  of  the 
General  Government  in  this  terrible  crisis,  but  they  have  not 
gone  to  Kansas  to  be  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  the  enslaved  negro, 
nor  to  sacrifice  their  chances  for  a  homestead  upon  the  altar  of 
principle,  but  to  find  a  comfortable  home  for  themselves  and 
their  children.  Before  they  emigrated  they  gave  little  or  no 
countenance  to  the  antislavery  cause  at  home;  they  partook  of 
the  genernl  hostility  or  indifference  to  the  labors  of  radical  Abo- 
litionism ;  at  least  they  could  only  dream  of  making  '  freedom 
national  and  slavery  sectional  after  the  manner  of  the  fathers;' 
and  they  were  poisoned  more  or  less  with  the  virus  of  colorpho- 
bia.  If  they  had  no  pluck  here,  what  could  be  rationally  ex- 
pected of  them  in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  demoniacal 
spirit  of  slavery?  They  represent  the  average  sentiment  of  the 
North  on  this  subject — nothing  more — and  that  is  still  subservi- 
ent to  the  will  of  the  South. 


"3.  The  omnipotent  power  of  the  General  Government  will 
co-operate  with  the  vandals  of  Missouri  to  crush  out  what  littfe 
antislavery  sentiment  may  exist  in  Kansas,  and  to  sustain  their 
lawless  proceedings  in  that  Territory.  This  will  prove  decisive 
in  the  struggle. 

"4.  On  the  subject  of  slavery  there  is  no  principle  in  the  Kan- 
sas papers  ostensibly  desirous  of  making  it  a  free  State.  Here, 
for  instance,  is  the  Herald  of  Freedom,  of  May  12th,  published 
in  Lawrence,  which  claims  to  be,  and  we  believe  is,  the  most 
outspoken  journal  in  Kansas  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  bona  fide 
settlers.  What  does  its  editor  say?  Listen!  '  While  publish- 
ing a  paper  in  Kansas,  we  feel  that  it  is  not  our  province  to  dis- 
cuss the  subject  of  freedom  or  slavery  in  the  States.'  Is  not  this 
the  most  heartless  inhumanity,  the  most  arrant,  moral  coward- 
ice, the  clearest  demonstration  of  unsoundness  of  mind? 

"  These  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  we  believe  Kansas  will 
inevitably  be  a  slave  State. " 


G.  W.  BROWN.  107 

The  thoughtful  reader  will  not  need  any  com- 
mentary to  point  out  the  utter  folly  and  incohe- 
rency  of  the  above  editorial  of  Mr.  Garrison.  One 
or  two  points,  however,  deserve  special  attention. 
"  Hardly  an  Abolitionist  can  be  found  among  all 
who  have  emigrated  to  that  country.  .  .  .  They  rep- 
resent the  average  sentiment  of  the  North." 

At  this  time  there  were  about  twenty  thousand 
people  in  Kansas.  Then,  according  to  the  estimate 
of  Mr.  Garrison,  there  was  hardly  one  Abolitionist 
in  twenty  thousand  Northern  people.  Here  is  a 
truthful,  though  evidently  unconscious  admission 
that  his  twenty-five  years  of  vituperation,  blasphe- 
my, and  anarchy,  with  all  its  work  and  worry,  had 
been  futile  and  useless. 

The  other  point  is  the  disparaging  reference  to 
the  Herald  of  Freedom. 

G.  W.  Brown,  from  Pennsylvania,  established 
that  paper  in  Lawrence  in  1854,  and  maintained  it 
as  the  organ  of  the  free-State  cause  during  the 
Kansas  contest.  It  was  a  most  hopeful  and  help- 
ful agency  in  the  free-State  interest.  In  all  my 
journeys  to  form  Kansas  Leagues,  to  organize  colo- 
nies, to  solicit  money  for  our  work,  or  to  combine 
the  Northern  people  of  all  political  parties  in  the 
determination  to  make  Kansas  free,  I  did  not  fail  to 
carry  large  packages  of  these  papers.  They  were  of 
vast  service  to  our  cause.  The  Herald  of  Freedom 
was  sent  by  the  Kansas  settlers  into  every  county 
and  into  almost  every  town  of  the  Northern  States. 
It  was  ever  true  to  the  principle  and  purpose  of 
making  Kansas  a  free  State.  Mr.  Garrison  and  his 


108  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

friends  complained  because  the  editor  refused  to 
enter  into  controversy  upon  the  general  subject  of 
slavery  in  the  States,  and  would  not  fill  his  col- 
umns with  "resolutions,"  and  complaints  about 
blood-hounds,  manacles,  and  auction  -  blocks.  The 
paper  was  ably  conducted,  and  was  of  inestimable 
value  to  the  cause  in  furnishing  and  disseminating 
information  about  the  Territory,  much  of  which 
was  given  by  the  actual  settlers.  The  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  advanced  two  thousand  dollars  to 
aid  Dr.  Brown  in  establishing  this  journal,  which 
sum  he  repaid.  He  knew  "  Old  John  Brown  "  in- 
timately while  he  was  in  Kansas,  and  his  reminis- 
cences of  that  worthy,  published  a  few  years  since, 
created  something  of  a  stampede  among  the  ad- 
mirers of  the  hero  of  Harper's  Ferry.  Dr.  Brown 
is  now  living  in  Kockford,  Illinois,  devoting  much 
of  his  time  to  literary  work.  He  is  entitled  to  the 
gratitude  of  every  lover  of  freedom  for  his  faithful, 
self-sacrificing,  and  effective  work  in  Kansas. 

In  the  Liberator  of  July  13,  1855,  there  is  the 
following  record : 

"Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson  was  the  next  speaker..  His 
declaration  of  his  belief  in  the  certainty  of  the  dissolution  of 
these  States,  and  of  his  own  readiness  for  that  event,  met  with 
the  general  and  evidently  carefully  considered  assent  of  the  au- 
dience." 

This  is  the  same  Eev.  Mr.  Higginson  from  whose 
sermon  we  have  already  quoted. 

In  perfect  accord  with  the  generally  obstructive 
efforts  of  the  Garrisonites  in  the  Kansas  conflict 
and  crusade  are  the  following  editorial  and  an  ex- 


GARRISON  AND  PHILLIPS.  109 

tract  from  the  speech  of  Wendell  Phillips,  to  be 
found  in  the  Liberator  of  September  28th,  and  Au- 
gust 10th,  1855 : 

"Talk  about  stopping  the  progress  of  slavery  and  of  saving 
Nebraska  and  Kansas !  Why,  the  fate  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas 
was  sealed  the  first  hour  Stephen  Arnold  Douglas  consented  to 
play  his  perfidious  part. 

"Why  is  Kansas  a  failure  as  a  free  State?  I  will  tell  you. 
You  sent  out  there  some  thousand  or  two  thousand  men — for 
what?  To  make  a  living;  to  cultivate  a  hundred  and  sixty 
acres;  to  build  houses;  to  send  for  their  wives  and  children;  to 
raise  wheat;  to  make  money;  to  build  saw-mills;  to  plant  towns. 
You  meant  to  take  possession  of  the  country,  as  the  Yankee 
race  always  takes  possession  of  a  country,  by  industry,  by  civili- 
zation, by  roads,  by  houses,  by  mills,  by  churches;  but  it  will 
take  a  long  time — it  takes  two  centuries  to  do  it. 

******* 

"The  moment  you  throw  the  struggle  with  slavery  into  the 
half-barbarous  West,  where  things  are  decided  by  the  revolver 
and  bowie-knife,  slavery  triumphs.  . .  . 

"What  do  I  care  for  a  squabble  around  the  ballot-box  in 
Kansas?" 

These  miserable  prophetic  efforts  were  intended 
to  check  and  ruin  the  work  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company.  On  every  occasion  the  Abolitionists 
magnified  its  dangers  and  difficulties,  so  that  by 
destroying  all  faith  in  the  result  sought,  the  work 
itself  might  soon  be  suspended.  It  was  far  too 
humiliating  to  be  endured,  that  a  new  agency 
should  enter  the  antislavery  field  and  achieve  suc- 
cess even  in  its  infancy.  Something  must  be  done 
to  retain  in  their  own  hands  the  great  slavery 
question.  To  this  they  had  given  undivided  atten- 
tion for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  and  for  that 


110  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

reason  alone  had  assumed  to  be  its  only  author- 
ized and  infallible  champions.  So  a  church  rat, 
having  lived  in  a  cathedral  a  dozen  years,  nib- 
bling the  crumbs  of  sacramental  bread,  might  claim 
to  know  more  theology  than  the  recently  appointed 
bishop. 

As  we  have  just  seen,  Mr.  Phillips  said,  with  char- 
acteristic scorn,  "What  do  I  care  for  a  squabble 
around  the  ballot-box  in  Kansas?"  Fortunately 
there  was  such  a  "squabble."  It  has  been  proved 
that  no  such  "  squabble "  would  have  been  but  for 
the  work  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company.  All 
would  have  been  peace,  but  the  peace  of  freedom's 
death  and  of  slavery's  triumph.  The  people  of  the 
North  did  care  about  this  conflict,  for  they  saw  in 
it  the  power  commissioned  to  determine  the  fate 
of  this  nation.  From  this  contest  it  became  evi- 
dent that  there  could  never  be  another  slave  State 
in  this  Union. 

Patriots  were  glad  that  this  trial  had  come,  while 
anarchists  and  disunionists  were  sad  and  disheart- 
ened. This  conflict,  which,  Charles  Sumner  said, 
"  surpassed  far  in  moral  grandeur  the  whole  war 
of  the  Kevolution,"  saved  Kansas  and  the  country. 
Is  it,  then,  a  fit  subject  for  the  ridicule  of  Garrison- 
ites  ?  That  American  is  little  to  be  envied  who  can 
speak  lightly  of  the  decisive  contest  in  Kansas  be- 
tween the  two  antagonistic  civilizations  of  this  con- 
tinent. Either  he  does  not  love  his  country,  or  is 
incapable  of  understanding  her  history.  In  this 
contest  was  involved  the  welfare  of  the  human  race 
more  than  it  had  ever  been  in  any  other.  The  bat- 


CHILDREN  OF  THE  "SQUABBLE."  Ill 

ties  of  Marathon  and  Leuctra  were  insignificant  in 
results  when  compared  with  it.  So  were  those  of 
Hastings,  Bannockburn,  Naseby,  and  a  hundred 
others  most  celebrated  in  history.  Among  the 
children  of  this  "  squabble "  are  Sumter,  Bull  Kun, 
and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Of  the  same 
mother  came  also  Antietam,  Gettysburg,  and  Ap- 
pomattox.  The  time  may  come  when  Bunker  Hill 
and  Yorktown  will  take  a  lower  place  in  history. 
These  made  independent  three  millions  of  British 
subjects.  That  made  four  millions  of  slaves  into 
freemen,  and  raised  to  manhood  a  still  larger  num- 
ber of  Avhite  men  whose  condition  had  been  more 
pitiable  than  that  of  the  slaves.  The  former  gave 
us  a  republic  without  republicanism,  which  denied 
our  Declaration  of  Independence  by  withholding 
equal  rights.  The  latter  gave  us  a  true  republic, 
with  equal  rights  for  all. 

But  there  is  another  view  to  be  taken  of  the 
Kansas  fight.  Like  mercy,  it  was  "twice  blessed." 
It  blessed  both  parties  to  the  conflict;  and,  won- 
derful to  relate,  the  vanquished  were  a  hundred 
times  more  blessed  in  their  defeat  than  were  the 
victors  in  their  triumph.  In  the  North  slavery  was 
an  appalling  shadow,  a  dark  and  threatening  cloud. 
In  the  South  it  was  the  blackness  of  darkness,  with- 
out one  gleam  of  light.  In  the  North  it  was  only 
a  hinderance  to  prosperity.  In  the  South  it  was  an 
insurmountable  obstruction  to  all  enterprise  and  a 
dead -stop  to  all  progress.  So  both  sections  were 
the  gainers  by  its  defeat  and  extinction,  but  the 
South  by  far  the  greater.  Look  at  her  now !  In 


112  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

the  very  infancy  of  her  regeneration  she  has  be- 
come in  iron  manufacture  the  successful  rival  of 
Pennsylvania,  and,  in  certain  cotton  manufactures, 
of  the  whole  North.  Capital  is  now  flowing  South- 
ward more  freely  and  more  copiously  than  in  any 
other  direction.  As  this  stream  of  incoming  wealth 
progresses,  and  capital  is  also  accumulated  from  her 
profitable  investments  already  made,  she  will  re- 
ceive a  great  and  ever-increasing  accession  to  her 
population  by  the  immigration  of  white  men  skilled 
in  the  mechanic  arts.  Her  charming  climate,  her 
inexhaustible  mines  of  coal  and  iron  in  close  prox- 
imity to  the  needed  lime-rock,  her  cotton,  all  ready 
for  manufacture  in  her  own  hands — these  are  the 
bases  of  such  a  future  growth  and  prosperity  as 
can  nowhere  else  be  found.  The  race  problem, 
about  which  some  good  people  are  fretting,  will 
take  care  of  itself,  if  the  South  shall  now  devote 
her  energies  to  the  development  of  her  vast  treas- 
ures, and  enter  into  a  brisk  and  healthy  competi- 
tion in  her  specialties  with  all  parts  of  the  world. 
In  all  the  heavy  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel, 
in  the  making  of  cotton  cloths,  and  in  many  other 
mechanical  enterprises  not  yet  developed,  she  can 
take  and  hold  the  markets  of  this  continent  and 
eventually  many  others.  No  country  to-day  has 
such  assuring  prospects,  and  none  promises  to  its 
inhabitants  such  ample  returns  for  capital  and  la- 
bor invested. 

The  Southern  States,  as  manufacturing  centres, 
have  a  great  advantage  over  Massachusetts,  Khode 
Island,  and  Connecticut.  The  net  profits  to  these 


THE  NEW  SOUTH.  113 

States  of  their  manufactories  are  greatly  reduced 
by  the  cost  of  flour,  corn,  and  meat  brought  from 
the  West,  and  of  cotton,  wool,  iron,  and  coal  from 
other  quarters.  The  South  has  all  these  important 
materials  in  abundance,  so  that  within  her  own  lim- 
its she  has  the  means  of  feeding  and  clothing  a  pop- 
ulation many  times  larger  than  she  now  has,  while 
the  products  of  her  mines  and  her  cotton  furnish  a 
basis  for  exports  in  manufactured  goods  and  in  raw 
materials  such  as  no  other  country  has.  The  labor- 
ing man  can  there  support  himself  and  his  family 
for  three-quarters  of  the  sum  required  for  that  pur- 
pose in  New  England.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the 
facts  which  give  hope  and  encouragement  to  the 
new  South. 

Her  present  duty  is  to  push  forward  with  the 
greatest  possible  vigor  her  legitimate  business  pur- 
suits, and  to  waste  no  time  over  the  "  race  prob- 
lem;" to  attain,  as  speedily  as  she  may,  to  the 
height  of  her  possible  destiny  in  wealth,  in  popu- 
lation, in  education,  and  power.  Her  death  has  be- 
come life  through  her  disappointment  in  Kansas. 
Her  resurrection  has  now  come,  and  the  bounding 
pulses  of  her  new  life  are  thrilling  all  her  veins. 
With  energy,  persistency,  and  fidelity  in  using  her 
great  advantages,  she  will  soon  become  the  wealth- 
iest and  most  populous  part  of  the  Union.  This 
result  will  be  the  proper  settlement  of  the  race 
question. 

We  now  return  to  the  continued  diatribes  of  the 
disunionists.  At  a  meeting  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  Mr. 


114  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Garrison,,  as  reported  in  the  Liberator  of  the  2d  of 
May,  1856,  said : 

"While  the  Union  continues,  the  slave  power  will  have  every- 
thing its  own  way,  in  the  last  resort. 

"  'But  (they  say)  we  are  going  to  have  a  glorious  victory  in 
Kansas.' 

"It  is  all  delusion  to  suppose  that  Kansas  is  safe  for  freedom. 
We  are  just  too  late!  We  have  been  betrayed  by  the  General 
Government  itself,  which  is  now  on  the  side  of  '  border  ruffian- 
ism!' Slavery  is  certain  to  go  into  Kansas,  nay,  slaves  are  now 
carried  there  daily,  and  offered  for  sale  with  impunity.  Even 
the  free-State  men  have  voted  to  let  slavery  continue  in  the  Ter- 
ritory till  the  4th  of  July  next,  and  that  no  colored  man  shall 
be  allowed  to  set  his  foot  upon  the  soil  of  Kansas;  thus  tram- 
pling under  foot  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Stales." 

Here  we  have  another  example  of  the  "  eternal 
whine."  "The  slave  power  will  have  everything 
its  own  way."  Did  this  sad  prophecy  prove  true  ? 

It  had  now  become  apparent  that  the  cause  of 
freedom  was  likely  to  triumph  in  Kansas.  Even 
the  disunionists  in  their  hostile  and  imbittered 
hearts  began  to  believe  it.  Observe  that  while  up 
to  this  time  they  have  always  said  you  when  speak- 
ing of  the  supporters  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  move- 
ment, they  now  say  we.  "  We  are  just  too  late." 
What  had  the  disunionists,  represented  by  the 
word  " we"  ever  done  for  Kansas,  except  to  oppose 
with  all  their  power  the  only  agency  that  could 
secure  the  freedom  of  that  State?  It  is  now  a 
little  late  for  the  presumptuous  claim  that  "  we " 
are  champions  in  the  grand  crusade  of  freedom. 
"Whenever  there  was  any  chance  for  practical  action 
against  slavery  there  was  a  great  lion  in  the  path 


A  BIG  LION  IN  THE  WAY.  115 

of  the  Abolitionists.  They  called  him  "  PRINCIPLE." 
The  Liberator  of  May  16,  1856,  contains  a  speech 
of  Samuel  May,  Jr.,  in  the  K.  Y.  A.  A.  S.  Conven- 
tion, in  which  he  said  that  he  thought  both  duty 
and  a  sound  and  just  expediency  utterly  forbade 
their  identifying  themselves,  for  an  instant,  with 
the  mere  w,cw-extension-of -slavery  movement.  Es- 
pecially would  he  protest  against  their  identifying 
themselves,  as  a  society,  with  the  Kansas  free-State 
movement,  so  long  as  it  stood  upon  its  present  low 
and  compromising  level.  "  We  cannot  join  in  the 
present  movement  for  Kansas  because  it  is  false  in 
principle.  That  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  we 
should  take  no  part  in  it,"  said  he. 

"  False  in  principle !"  These  Abolitionists  re- 
garded all  action  against  slavery  as  "  false  in  prin- 
ciple "  if  it  did  not  contemplate  the  destruction  of 
the  churches  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Government. 
To  such  an  extent  were  they  dominated  by  "  prin- 
ciple "  that  they  would  not  give  one  dime  for  the 
purchase  and  liberation  of  all  the  slaves  in  the 
country.  This  method,  they  had  often  said,  would 
be  trafficking  in  human  beings.  But  they  had  no 
objection  to  John  Brown's  way  of  murder  and  rob- 
bery, under  the  pretence  of  extending  freedom. 
They  could  not  be  expected  to  favor  the  law-abid- 
ing Emigrant  Aid  Company,  or  to  restrain  their 
admiration  and  eulogy  of  John  Brown,  for  disre- 
garding all  law  and  the  rights  of  all  men,  who  dif- 
fered with  him  in  opinion,  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  folloAving  is   from  a   speech  of  Wendell 


116  THE   KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Phillips,   printed   in   the   Liberator  of   July   11, 
1856  : 

"  Now  I  have  great  hopes.  I  thick  Fremont  will  be  defeated. 
I  think  there  is  great  chance  that  Buchanan  will  be  elected.  I 
liave  no  hope  for  Kansas.  How  can  I  have?  Where  are  the 
hundred  men  who  went  from  Chicago?  Why,  they  went  through 
Missouri,  and  laid  down  their  arms  at  the  feet  of  a  mob!  Fifty 
men  from  the  city  of  Worcester  met  the  same  fate.  A  thousand 
dollars  from  the  town  of  Concord  alone  gone  into  the  treasury 
of  the  Missouri  mob! .  .  .  Fifty  per  cent,  of  the  muskets  bought 
in  New  England  are  to-day  in  the  hands  of  Missourians." 

Here  Mr.  Phillips  plays  a  jubilee  strain  upon 
three  strings  of  his  fiddle.  "  Fremont  defeated," 
"  Buchanan  elected,"  "  Kansas  lost."  The  country 
did  not  join  in  this  untimely  and  disloyal  exulta- 
tion. "With  greater  energy  than  ever,  and  fiercer 
determination,  the  North  was  equal  to  the  exigency 
of  the  time.  The  Missouri  Kiver  had  been  closed 
to  our  emigrants,  Lawrence  had  been  sacked  by 
border  ruffians,  United  States  troops  held  as  pris- 
oners many  of  the  free-State  leaders.  This  was  the 
time  for  Garrison  and  Phillips  to  sing  hallelujahs ! 

The  following  is  from  the  diary  of  Amos  A. 
Lawrence  (Life  by  his  son,  page  105) : 

"Nov.  5t?i,  1856. — Went  with  Governor  Robinson  and  Sen- 
ator Henry  Wilson  to  a  private  meeting  of  about  twenty  Kansas 
men  to  decide  what  shall  be  done  if  Buchanan  is  elected.  Rev. 
Mr.  Higginson  advocated  resistance  to  the  Government.  Mr. 
Wilson  spoke  against  that  doctrine  very  decidedly;'  so  did  I." 

The  Garrison  Abolitionists  having  failed  to  de- 
stroy, or  even  to  impede,  the  work  of  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  in  colonizing  Kansas,  and  the  bor- 


THE  PROPHET  OF  ANARCHY.  117 

der  ruffians  also  having  achieved  no  success  in  the 
same  purpose,  by  their  acts  of  lawless  invasion, 
outrage,  and  intimidation,  they  unitedly  sought  to 
destroy  the  results  of  our  victory  by  inducing  the 
free-State  men  to  fight  the  United  States  troops. 
James  H.  Lane  had  expressed  this  purpose  in  Ohio, 
in  his  speeches  during  the  summer.  Rev.  Mr.  Hig- 
ginson  had  just  returned  from  a  conference  with 
Lane,  and  was  urging  Lane's  methods.  Every  one 
must  see  that  the  plan  proposed  would  have  been 
complete  ruin  to  the  free-State  cause.  But  Charles 
Robinson  and  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  averted 
this  danger. 

Here  is  the  last  shot  from  the  anarchists,  in  a 
speech  of  Wendell  Phillips,  printed  in  the  Liberator 
of  August  14,  185Y : 

"But  Kansas — her  battle  will  not  be  fought  in  the  West,  but 
on  the  chess-board  at  Washington,  and  in  midnight  session  she 
will  be  betrayed.  This  administration  will  see  Kansas,  possibly 
Oregon  and  Nebraska,  possibly  the  southern  half  of  California 
— admitted  as  slave  States;  and  then,  with  four  or  six  more  votes 
in  the  Senate,  with  the  prestige  of  success,  how  will  you  meet 
another  Presidential  election?" 

Turn  back  a  few  pages  and  you  find  Mr.  Phillips 
saying,  "  When  you  throw  the  struggle  with  slavery 
into  the  half-barbarous  West,  where  things  are  de- 
cided by  the  bowie-knife  and  revolver,  slavery  tri- 
umphs." All  that  had  been  done  and  slavery  had 
been  defeated.  But  now  all  our  success  in  Kansas 
is  to  count  for  nothing,  since  the  battle  is  to  be 
"  fought  on  the  chess-board  at  Washington."  The 
prophet  of  evil  still  adheres  to  his  original  idea  that 


118  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Kansas  shall  be  a  slave  State  by  some  means.  This, 
like  all  his  other  prophecies,  proved  to  be  entirely 
fallacious.  From  this  time  forward  his  course,  as 
Roosevelt  says,  "  was  either  mischievous  or  ridicu- 
lous, and  sometimes  both." 

But  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  had  able  defend- 
ers as  well  as  violent  assailants.  Charles  Sumner, 
on  the  19th  of  May,  1856,  in  his  speech  "  The  Crime 
against  Kansas,"  made  an  elaborate  and  eloquent 
eulogy  of  this  company  and  of  the  State  which 
gave  it  life. 

"VVe  quote  as  follows : 

"It  only  remains,  uuder  this  bead,  that  I  should  speak  of  the 
apology  infamous,  founded  on  false  testimony  against  the  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company,  and  assumptions  of  duty  more  false  than 
the  testimony.  Defying  truth  and  mocking  decency,  this  apol- 
ogy excels  all  others  in  futility  and  audacity,  \vhile,  from  its  utter 
hollowuess,  it  proves  the  utter  impotence  of  the  conspirators  to 
defend  their  crime.  Falsehood,  always  infamom,  in  this  case 
arouses  peculiar  scorn.  An  association  of  sincere  benevolence, 
faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  laws,  whose  only  fortifications 
are  hotels,  school-houses,  and  churches;  whose  only  weapons  are 
saw-mills,  tools,  and  books;  whose  mission  is  peace  and  good- 
\vill,  has  been  falsely  assailed  on  this  floor,  and  an  errand  of 
blameless  virtue  has  been  made  the  pretext  for  an  unpardonable 
crime.  Nay,  more — the  innocent  are  sacrificed,  and  the  guilty 
set  at  liberty.  They  who  seek  to  do  the  mission  of  the  Saviour 
are  scourged  and  crucified,  while  the  murderer,  Barabbas,  with 

the  sympathy  of  the  chief  priests,  goes  at  large. 

»•»»•»'•*  *  *  * 

"  Sir,  it  has  not  the  honor  of  being  an  abolition  society,  or  of 
numbering  among  its  officers  Abolitionists.  Its  president  is  a 
retired  citizen,  of  ample  means  and  charitable  life,  who  has  taken 
no  part  in  the  conflicts  on  slavery,  and  has  never  allowed  his 
sympathies  to  be  felt  by  Abolitionists.  One  of  its  vice-presi- 
dents is  a  gentleman  from  Virginia,  "with  family  and  friends 


SUMNER'S  EULOGY.  119 

there,  who  has  always  opposed  the  Abolitionists.  Its  generous 
treasurer,  who  is  now  justly  absorbed  by  the  objects  of  the  com- 
pany, has  always  been  understood  as  ranging  with  his  extensive 
connections,  by  blood  and  marriage,  on  the  side  of  that  quietism 
which  submits  to  all  the  tyranny  of  the  slave  power.  Its  direct- 
ors are  more  conspicuous  for  wealth  and  science  than  for  any 
activity  against  slavery.  Among  these  is  an  eminent  lawyer  of 
Massachusetts,  Mr.  Chapman — personally  known,  doubtless,  to 
some  who  hear  me — who  has  distinguished  himself  by  an  austere 
conservatism,  too  natural  to  the  atmosphere  of  courts,  which 
does  not  flinch  even  from  the  support  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 
In  a  recent  address  at  a  public  meeting  in  Springfield,  this  gen- 
tleman thus  speaks  for  himself  and  his  associates: 

"  '  I  have  been  a  director  of  the  society  from  the  first,  and 
have  kept  myself  well  informed  in  regard  to  its  proceedings.  I 
am  not  aware  that  any  one  in  this  community  ever  suspected  me 
of  being  an  Abolitionist;  but  I  have  been  accused  of  being  pro- 
slavery;  and  I  believe  many  good  people  think  I  am  quite  too 
conservative  on  that  subject.  I  take  this  occasion  to  say  that  all 
the  plans  and  proceedings  of  the  society  have  met  my  approba- 
tion; and  I  assert  that  it  has  never  done  a  single  act  with  which 
any  political  party,  or  the  people  of  any  section  of  the  country, 
can  justly  find  fault.  The  name  of  its  president,  Mr.  Brown,  of 
Providence,  and  of  its  treasurer,  Mr.  Lawrence,  of  Boston,  are  a 
sufficient  guarantee  in  the  estimation  of  intelligent  men  against 
its  being  engaged  in  any  fanatical  enterprise.  Its  stockholders 
are  composed  of  men  of  all  political  parties  except  Abolitionists. 
I  am  not  aware  that  it  has  received  the  patronage  of  that  class  of 
our  fellow-citizens,  and  I  am  informed  that  some  of  them  disap- 
prove of  its  proceedings.' 

"The  acts  of  the  company  have  been  such  as  might  be  ex- 
pected from  auspices  thus  severely  careful  at  all  points.  The 
secret  through  which,  with  small  means,  it  has  been  able  to  ac- 
complish so  much  is  that,  as  an  inducement  to  emigration,  it  has 
gone  forward  and  planted  capital  in  advance  of  population.  Ac- 
cording to  the  old  immethodical  system,  this  rule  is  reversed; 
and  population  has  been  left  to  grope  blindly,  without  the  ad- 
vantage of  fixed  centres,  with  mills,  schools,  and  churches — all 
calculated  to  soften  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life— such  as  have 
been  established  beforehand  in  Kansas.  Here,  sir,  is  the  secret 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company.  By  this  single  principle,  which 
is  now  practically  applied  for  the  first  time  in  history,  and  which 


120  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

has  the  simplicity  of  genius,  a  business  association  at  a  distance, 
\vithout  a  large  capital,  has  become  a  beneficent  instrument  of 
civilization,  exercising  the  functions  of  various  societies,  and  in 
itself  being  a  Missionary  Society,  a  Bible  Society,  a  Tract  Socie- 
ty, an  Education  Society,  and  a  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  the 
Mechanic  Arts.  I  would  not  claim  too  much  for  this  company; 
but  I  doubt  if,  at  this  moment,  there  is  any  society  which  is  so 
completely  philanthropic;  and  since  its  leading  idea,  like  the 
light  of  a  candle  from  which  other  candles  are  lighted  without 
number,  may  be  applied  indefinitely,  it  promises  to  be  an  im- 
portant aid  to  human  progress. 

******* 

"But  since  a  great  right  has  been  denied,  the  children  of  the 
free  States,  over  whose  cradles  has  shone  the  north-star,  owe  it 
to  themselves,  to  their  ancestors,  and  to  freedom  itself,  that  this 
right  should  now  be  asserted  to  the  fullest  extent.  By  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  and  under  the  continued  protection  of  the  laws,  they 
will  go  to  Kansas,  there  to  plant  their  homes,  in  the  hope  of  ele- 
vating this  Territory  soon  into  the  sisterhood  of  free  States;  and 
to  such  end  they  will  not  hesitate,  in  the  employment  of  all  le- 
gitimate means,  whether  by  companies  of  men  or  contributions 
of  money,  to  swell  a  virtuous  emigration,  and  they  will  justly 
scout  any  attempt  to  question  this  unquestionable  right.  Sir,  if 
they  failed  to  do  this,  they  would  be  fit  only  for  slaves  them- 
selves. 

' '  God  be  praised !  Massachusetts,  honored  commonwealth  that 
gives  me  the  privilege  to  plead  for  Kansas  on  this  floor,  knows 
her  rights,  and  will  maintain  them  firmly  to  the  end.  This  is 
not  the  first  time  in  history  that  her  public  acts  have  been  ar- 
raigned, and  that  her  public  men  have  been  exposed  to  contume- 
ly. Thus  was  it  when,  in  the  olden  time,  she  began  the  great 
battle  whose  fruits  you  all  enjoy.  But  never  yet  has  she  occu- 
pied a  position  so  lofty  as  at  this  hour.  By  the  intelligence  of 
her  population — by  the  resources  of  her  industry — by  her  com- 
merce, cleaving  every  wave — by  her  manufactures,  various  as 
human  skill — by  her  institutions  of  education,  various  as  human 
knowledge — by  her  institutions  of  benevolence,  various  as  hu- 
man suffering — by  the  pages  of  her  scholars  and  historians — by 
the  voices  of  her  poets  and  orators,  she  is  now  exerting  an  influ- 
ence more  subtle  and  commanding  than  ever  before — shooting 


MASSACHUSETTS.  121 

her  far-dartiug  rays  wherever  ignorance,  wretchedness,  or  wrong 
prevail,  and  flashing  light  upon  those  who  travel  far  to  persecute 
her. 

"  Such  is  Massachusetts,  and  I  am  proud  to  believe  that  you 
may  as  well  attempt,  with  puny  arm,  to  topple  down  the  earth- 
rooted,  heaven-kissing  granite  which  crowns  the  historic  sod  of 
Bunker  Hill,  as  to  change  her  fixed  resolves  for  freedom  every- 
where, and  especially  now  for  freedom  in  Kansas.  I  exult,  too, 
that  in  this  battle,  which  surpasses  far  in  moral  grandeur  the 
whole  war  of  the  Revolution,  she  is  able  to  preserve  her  just  em- 
inence. To  the  first  she  contributed  a  larger  number  of  troops 
than  any  other  State  in  the  Union,  and  larger  than  all  the  slave 
States  together;  and  now  to  the  second,  which  is  not  of  contend- 
ing armies  but  of  contending  opinions,  on  whose  issue  hangs 
trembling  the  advancing  civilization  of  the  country,  she  contrib- 
utes through  the  manifold  and  endless  intellectual  activity  of  her 
children,  more  of  that  divine  spark  by  which  opinions  are  quick- 
ened into  life,  than  is  contributed  by  any  other  State,  or  by  all 
the  slave  States  together,  while  her  annual  productive  industry 
excels  in  value  three  times  the  whole  vaunted  cotton  crop  of  the 
whole  South. 

"  Sir,  to  men  on  earth  it  belongs  only  to  deserve  success,  not 
to  secure  it ;  and  I  know  not  how  soon  the  efforts  of  Massachu- 
setts will  wear  the  crown  of  triumph.  But  it  cannot  be  that  she 
acts  wrong  for  herself  or  her  children  when  in  this  cause  she 
thus  encounters  reproach.  No;  by  the  generous  souls  who  were 
exposed  at  Lexington;  by  those  who  stood  arrayed  on  Bunker 
Hill;  by  the  many  from  her  bosom  who,  on  all  the  fields  of  the 
first  great  struggle,  lent  their  vigorous  arms  to  the  cause  of  all; 
by  the  children  she  has  borne  whose  names  are  national  trophies, 
is  Massachusetts  now  vowed  irrevocably  to  this  work.  What 
belongs  to  the  faithful  servant  she  will  do  in  all  things,  and  Prov- 
idence shall  determine  the  result." 

The  only  Southern  authority  approving  of  the 
plan  and  operations  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company 
was  furnished  by  De  Bow's  Review  of  March,  1858, 
as  follows : 
C 


122  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"We  of  the  South  have  been  practising  'Organized  Emigra- 
tion '  for  a  century,  and  hence  have  outstripped  the  North  in  the 
acquisition  of  land.  The  owner  of  a  hundred  slaves,  who,  with 
his  overseer,  moves  to  the  West,  carries  out  a  self-supporting, 
self-insuring,  well  organized  community.  This  is  the  sort  of 
'  Organized  Emigration '  which  experience  shows  suits  the  South 
and  the  negro  race,  while  Mr.  Thayer's  is  equally  well  adapted 
to  the  whitea  * 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   CHTJKCHES    AND   THE   CRUSADE. 

PENDING  the  discussion  in  Congress  of  the  pro- 
posed repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  three 
thousand  and  fifty  of  the  loyal  and  patriotic  cler- 
gymen of  New  England  sent  the  following  protest 
to  the  United  States  Senate : 

"  To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in 
Congress  assembled  : 

"The  undersigned,  clergymen  of  different  religious  denomk- 
nations  in  New  England,  hereby,  in  the  name  of  Almighty  God, 
and  in  his  presence,  do  solemnly  protest  against  the  passage  of 
what  is  known  as  the  Nebraska  Bill,  or  any  repeal  or  modifica- 
tion of  the  existing  legal  prohibitions  of  slavery  in  that  part  of 
our  national  domain  which  it  is  proposed  to  organize  into  the 
Territories  of  Nebraska  and  Kansas.  We  protest  against  it  as  a 
great  moral  wrong,  as  a  breach  of  faith,  eminently  unjust  to  the 
moral  principles  of  the  community,  and  subversive  of  all  confi- 
dence in  national  engagements;  as  a  measure  full  of  danger  to 
the  peace  and  even  the  existence  of  our  beloved  Union,  and  ex- 
posing us  to  the  righteous  judgments  of  the  Almighty ;  and  your 
protestants,  as  in  duty  bound,  will  ever  pray.  * 

"  BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS,  March  1, 1854." 

Several  other  similar  protests  from  clergymen  in 
other  parts  of  the  Northern  States  were  presented 
to  the  same  august  body  before  the  passage  of  the 
bill.  These  worthy  men,  exercising  the  right  of 
petition  which  belongs  to  every  American  citizen, 


124  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

were  grossly  abused  by  some  of  the  Senators,  while 
they  were  bravely  and  ably  defended  by  others. 

The  influence  of  this  action  of  the  clergy  and  its 
rebuke  by  the  Senate  resulted  in  the  creation  of  a 
mighty  factor  in  aid  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Compa- 
ny, in  securing  freedom  to  Kansas,  and  in  the  de- 
struction of  slavery.  In  fact,  the  earliest  reliance 
of  our  company  was  upon  these  clergymen  and 
their  churches.  There  was  no  political  antislavery 
party  which  had  any  power  to  aid  our  organized 
emigration  or  to  protect  the  rights  of  our  emigrants. 
The  Free-soil  party  had  then  dwindled  to  almost 
nothing.  Its  members,  whether  in  or  out  of  Con- 
gress, were  hopeless  as  well  as  helpless.  The  one 
central  principle  of  the  party  —  the  exclusion  of 
slavery  from  the  Territories  by  law  of  Congress — 
was  utterly  destroyed  and  put  beyond  any  hope  of 
revival  by  opening  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  slavery. 
This  was  a  time  of  general  gloom  and  despair  in 
the  free  States.  Their  only  hope  was  based  upon 
the  "  plan  of  freedom  "  adopted  by  the  New  Eng- 
land Emigrant  Aid  Company.  Among  the  first 
to  recognize  the  power  and  possibilities  of  that 
plan  were  these  protesting  clergymen.  Indeed, 
the  very  first  man  to  express  confidence  in  its 
success,  and  his  own  readiness  to  work  for  it  with 
all  his  might,  was  Eev.  Edward  Everett  Hale, 
one  of  the  signers  of  the  protest.  True  to  his 
pledge,  he  immediately  began  to  write  a  book  mi- 
nutely describing  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Ne- 
braska, showing  their  many  attractions,  the  way  to 
reach  them,  and  enumerating  the  Emigrant  Aid 


EDWARD   EVERETT   HALE.  125 

companies  already  formed.  This  was  really  a 
hand-book  for  emigrants,  and  was  of  very  great 
service  in  our  eiforts  to  arouse  the  public  to  the 
importance  of  organized  emigration.  But  the  emi- 
nent services  of  Mr.  Hale's  pen,  whether  in  books 
or  newspapers,  were  but  a  fraction  of  his  Kansas 
work.  At  the  time  of  the  great  crusade  he  was 
pastor  of  a  church  in  Worcester.  Whenever  I  was 
unable  to  meet  all  my  appointments,  it  was  my  cus- 
tom to  apply  to  this  self -sacrificing  divine.  He 
never  disappointed  me.  He  seemed  never  to  think 
of  himself  until  he  had  thought  of  everybody  else. 
With  characteristic  energy  and  fidelity  he  proceed- 
ed to  unite  the  Northern  clergy  and  their  churches 
in  support  of  our  Boston  company  in  1855,  after 
we  had  shown  our  power  in  Kansas  and  had  made 
it  evident  that,  with  proper  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  North,  the  freedom  of  that  Territory  would  be 
assured.  In  this  way  many  of  the  clergy  became 
life-members  of  our  company  and  were  our  stanch 
friends  and  supporters.  In  all  my  lecturing  tours 
for  uniting  the  people  of  the  free  States  in  the  great 
work  of  securing  freedom  to  Kansas,  I  found  them 
invaluable  aids.  Their  churches  were  everywhere 
open  for  my  meetings,  and  almost  without  exception 
they  reinforced  my  arguments  with  appropriate 
and  effective  appeals  for  patriotism  and  freedom. 

Though  instances  were  numerous  in  which  the 
clergymen  made  impressive  appeals  to  their  congre- 
gations in  favor  of  our  cause,  I  now  recall  one  which 
may  serve  to  illustrate  my  meaning,  and  prove  the 
patriotism  of  these  heroic  and  self-sacrificing  men. 


126  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

I  was  advertised  to  speak  in  the  church  of  a 
small  town  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  in  Ver- 
mont, in  the  winter  of  1854-55.  Having  spoken 
the  night  before  in  a  town  some  fifty  miles  distant, 
I  started  by  railroad  early  the  next  day  to  meet  my 
evening  appointment.  There  was  a  drifting  snow- 
storm of  unusual  severity  during  the  forenoon,  and 
our  train  having  been  blocked  for  several  hours,  I 
did  not  reach  the  meeting  until  it  had  been  assem- 
bled half  an  hour.  The  church  was  well  filled  and 
I  spoke  for  two  hours.  There  was  intense  interest 
manifested  throughout  my  remarks.  After  I  had 
concluded,  the  venerable  pastor  arose  and  made  one 
of  the  most  stirring  appeals  for  Kansas  that  I  had 
ever  heard.  I  remember  now,  thirty -four  years 
later,  the  closing  words  of  the  patriarch.  Address- 
ing the  young  men,  he  said :  "  My  sons,  you  have 
sometimes  come  to  me  to  ask  my  advice  Concern- 
ing your  future  course  of  action.  You  have  asked 
me  if  it  would  not  be  well  for  you  to  go  to  Boston 
or  New  York  to  become  clerks  or  salesmen,  or  to 
engage  in  business  for  yourselves.  I  have  replied 
that  I  thought  you  better  off  here.  But  now  the 
time  has  come  when  I  should  be  false  to  my  sense 
of  duty  if  I  urged  you  to  remain  here  longer.  Now 
your  country  and  all  the  great  interests  of  civiliza- 
tion and  human  freedom  call  upon  you  to  leave  the 
green  hills  of  your  native  State  and  join  in  the 
grand  crusade  to  stop  the  progress  of  slavery.  Go, 
my  sons,  and  do  not  fear  for  me  or  for  your  parents, 
who  must  remain  at  home.  God  will  provide  for 
us.  On  yonder  rocky  farm  upon  the  hill-side  these 


A  TYPICAL  PATRIARCH.  127 

hands  have  earned  one-half  of  my  support  for  many 
years.  The  other  half  has  been  furnished  me  by 
yourselves  and  your  fathers.  Your  leaving  will  in- 
crease our  burdens ;  but  these  burdens  will  be  light- 
ened by  the  sense  of  having  done  our  duty.  I  have 
always  been  intensely  antislavery,  though  I  have 
never  failed  to  vote  the  Whig  ticket.  It  has  been 
a  matter  of  faith  with  me  that  God  would  open  a 
way  for  decisive  action  on  this  great  issue.  This 
time  has  now  come,  in  His  providence,  when  we 
must  show  whether  we  are  worthy  of  freedom,  or 
whether  we  are  only  fit  to  be  slaves.  Go,  my  sons, 
and  do  your  duty,  and  may  the  God  of  our  fathers 
bless  you !" 

In  response  to  this  eloquent  appeal  half  a  dozen 
young  men  joined  our  Kansas  colonies.  It  was  to 
clergymen  of  this  character  and  their  churches  that 
the  Garrison  disunionists  gave  every  hard  name  in 
their  copious  vocabulary. 

In  the  Liberator  of  May  16,  1856  (twenty-third 
anniversary  of  the  A.  A.  Society,  New  York  City), 
Mr.  Garrison  offered,  among  other  resolutions,  these, 
which  were  unanimously  passed  : 

"Resolved:  That  (making  all  due  allowance  for  exceptional 
cases)  the  American  Church  continues  to  be  the  bulwark  of 
slavery,  and  therefore  impure  in  heart,  hypocritical  in  profession, 
dishonest  in  practice,  brutal  in  spirit,  merciless  in  purpose — '  A 
cage  of  unclean  birds '  and  '  The  synagogue  of  Satan.' 

"Resolved :  That  such  a  church  is,  in  the  graphic  language  of 
Scripture,  'A  cage  of  unclean  birds '  and  the  '  Synagogue  of  Satan,' 
and  that  such  religious  teachers  are  '  Wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,' 
'  Watchmen  that  are  blind,' '  Shepherds  that  cannot  understand,' 
'  That  all  look  to  their  own  way,  every  one  to  his  gain  from  his 
quarter.'" 


128  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

In  the  files  of  the  Liberator  there  are  hundreds 
of  other  resolutions  similar  to  the  above  in  spirit 
and  purpose.  Among  these  "  unclean  birds  "  may 
be  mentioned  the  venerable  Eliphalet  Nott,  Francis 
Wayland,  Lyman  Beecher,  Henry  "Ward  Beecher, 
Leonard  Bacon,  Horace  Bushnell,  Edward  Everett 
Hale,  T.  Starr  King,  and  the  other  three  thousand 
and  fifty  who  signed  the  famous  protest  against 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

But  these  resolution -builders  were  not  content 
with  efforts  to  destroy  the  clergymen  and  the 
churches  over  which  they  presided.  They  also 
aimed  their  vindictive  shafts  at  all  the  missionary, 
charitable,  and  educational  societies  which  Christian 
philanthropy  had  founded  and  sustained.  The  fol- 
lowing extract  from  an  editorial  in  a  New  York  re- 
ligious paper  contains  one  out  of  hundreds  of  like 
import  to  be  found  in  their  records : 

New  York  Observer,  May,  1855 : 

"A  CLEAN  SWEEP. 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society  held  last 
•week  in  this  city,  the  following  resolution  was  supported  by  Mr. 
Garrison  from  the  Business  Committee,  and  discussed,  and,  we 
presume,  was  unanimously  adopted.  If  there  is  anything  else  in 
heaven  or  earth  which  these  fanatics  are  disposed  to  denounce, 
it  would  be  gratifying  to  know  what  and  where  it  is : 

"  'Resolved:  That  the  following  religious  organizations,  viz., 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 
the  American  Home  Missionary  Society,  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety, the  American  Bible  Union,  the  American  Tract  Society, 
the  American  Sunday  School  Union,  the  American  and  Foreign 
Christian  Union,  the  American  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  the  American  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union,  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society, 


NEW  YORK  OBSERVER.  129 

the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the  Missionary  So- 
cieties of  the  Protestant  Methodists,  Episcopal  Methodists,  Prot- 
estant Episcopal,  and  Moravian  bodies,  respectively,  being  in 
league  and  fellowship  with  the  slave-holders  of  the  South,  utterly 
dumb  in  regard  to  the  slave  system,  and  inflexibly  hostile  to  the 
antislavery  movement,  are  not  only  wholly  undeserving  of  any 
pecuniary  aid  or  public  countenance  at  the  North,  but  cannot  be 
supported  without  conniving  at  all  the  wrongs  and  outrages  by 
which  chattel  slavery  is  characterized,  and  therefore  ought  to  be 
instantly  abandoned  by  every  one  claiming  to  be  the  friend  of 
liberty  and  a  disciple  of  Christ  the  Redeemer.' 

"This  resolution  is  submitted  and  supported  by  a  man  publish- 
ing a  newspaper,  in  which  he  allows  such  blasphemy  to  be  pub- 
lished from  week  to  week  as  makes  the  blood  run  cold  to  read. 
In  a  recent  number  one  of  his  correspondents  says:  '  If  God  has 
the  power  to  abolish  slaver}7  and  does  not,  he  is  a  very  scoundrel.' 
From  this  we  infer  readily  that  there  is  no  God  at  all. 

"We  suppose  that  among  all  the  supporters  of  the  resolution  we 
have  copied  above  there  are  very  few  who  believe  in  the  exist- 
ence of  the  God  of  the  Bible.  The  society  which  they  represent 
is  now  the  only  American  antislavery  society  having  any  vitality 
whatever.  In  thus  planting  itself  in  defiant  opposition  to  the 
entire  body  of  Christian  philanthropists  in  the  United  States,  and 
boldly  proclaiming  its  hostility  to  the  Church  and  to  all  the  in- 
stitutions of  Christian  benevolence,  it  discloses  its  true  character 
and  reveals  the  natural  result  of  unregulated  and  unscriptural 
measures  of  reform.  .  .  .  Strike  out  of  being  the  societies  enu- 
merated in  the  damnatory  resolution  given  above,  and  what 
would  be  left  in  the  matter  of  philanthropy  and  benevolence? 
Separate  the  clergy  from  the  asylums  and  other  charitable  houses 
of  relief  for  the  poor  and  distressed,  and  how  long  would  they 
be  sustained?  Infidelity  makes  a  great  outcry  about  its  philan- 
thropy, but  religion  does  the  work. " 


One  of  the  most  effective  details  of  the  organ- 
ization of  the  company  was  the  system  of  life- 
membership  for  clergymen.  It  will  be  readily 
comprehended  from  the  following  circular,  sent 
by  a  committee  of  clergymen  to  their  brethren: 
6* 


130  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

EDUCATION,  TEMPERANCE,  FREEDOM,  RELIGION 
IN  KANSAS. 

DEAR  SIR:  We  are  engaged  in  an  effort  to  have  all  the 
"clergymen  of  New  England,"  made  life  members  of  the  New 
England  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 

By  insuring  thus  their  cooperation  in  the  direction  of  this 
Company,  and  by  enlarging  its  funds  at  this  period  of  its  high- 
est usefulness,  we  are  satisfied  that  the  Christians  of  New  Eng- 
land will  bring  to  bear  a  stronger  influence  in  sustaining  the  prin- 
ciples of  what  was  last  year  called  the  "Ministers'  Memorial," 
than  by  any  other  means  which  Providence  puts  in  their  hands. 

We  ask  such  cooperation  as  you  can  give  us;  supposing  that 
you  may  have  been  one  of  those  3,050  ministers,  who  in  the  Sen- 
ate of  the  United  States  were  pronounced  to  "  know  nothing  of 
the  facts,  laws  and  votes  involved  in  the  Nebraska  bill,"  and  to 
have  "no  time  to  understand  them."  We  are  certain  that  you 
belong  to  that  body  of  Northern  ministers  who  have  been  pro- 
hibited from  entering  northwestern  Missouri  or  Kansas,  by  those 
mobs  of  men  who  have  attempted  to  take  the  law  of  that  region 
into  their  own  hands. 

We  beg  your  attention  to  the  great  work  the  New  England 
Emigrant  Aid  Company  has  in  hand.  We  ask  your  particular 
attention  to  the  encouragement  which  divine  Providence  has 
given  to  its  efforts.  We  beg  you  to  observe  all  the  facts  in  the 
case,  before  you  give  way  to  the  false  and  discouraging  impres- 
sions, assiduously  circulated  since  the  pretended  election  in  Kan- 
sas, of  March  30,  which  was  the  work,  simply,  of  an  invading 
army.  You  may  rely  on  the  following  statements  of  the  work 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  since  it  was  established: 

1.  For  Freedom. — It  has  assisted  in  establishing  at  command- 
ing points  the  towns  of  Lawrence,  Topeka,  Osawatomie,  Boston, 
Hampden,  and  Wabounse.  In  some  of  these  towns  it  has  mills 
— in  most  of  them  some  investment  of  value  to  the  settlers. 
These  towns  are  all  peopled  by  "Free-State  men,"  whose  whole 
influence  goes  to  make  Kansas  free.  There  are  other  towns  al- 
ready started  of  simiki' character.  The  only  "  Slave-State"  town 
of  commanding  influence  in  Kansas  is  Leavenworth,  on  the  Mis- 
souri frontier,  separated  from  the  other  settled  parts  of  the  Ter- 
ritory by  Indian  reservations.  We  may  say,  therefore,  that  all 
the  most  important  centers  of  influence  have  been  established  or 


APPEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY.  131 

assisted  by  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  and  that  their  influence 
tells  for  the  cause  of  Freedom.  This  Company  has,  in  fact,  di- 
rectly transported  between  two  and  three  thousand  emigrants 
to  Kansas.  Not  one  man  of  them  is  known  to  have  ever  given 
a  "  Slave-State"  vote.  More  than  ten  thousand,  from  free  States 
of  the  Northwest,  have  been  led  there  by  its  indirect  influence 
here.  To  prevent  the  return  of  this  tide,  and  to  provide  those 
who  go  with  the  assistance  which  capital  only  can  provide,  this 
Company  wishes  to  supply  saw-mills  at  important  points,  and 
other  conveniences.  For  such  purposes  will  it  use  any  enlarge- 
ment of  its  funds.  The  emigration  is  still  very  large;  and  wher- 
ever this  Company  can  establish  a  saw-mill,  with  other  conven- 
iences, a  "Free-State"  town  can  be  gathered.  From  the  best 
sources  of  information,  from  the  officers  of  the  Company,  and 
•well-informed  persons  in  Kansas  and  Missouri,  we  are  convinced, 
as  the  result  of  what  has  been  done,  that  the  great  proportion  of 
settlers  now  in  Kansas  wish  it  to  become  a  free  State.  At  the 
election  held  on  the  22d  ult.,  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  Legislature, 
nine  "Free-State"  members  were  chosen,  and  only  three  "  Slave- 
State"  members — the  last  in  Leavenworth,  which  is  separated  by 
a  ferry  only  from  Missouri. 

2.  For  Religion. — The  officers  of  this  Company  have  under- 
stood that,  to  make  a  free  State,  they  needed,  first  of  all,  the  Gos- 
pel. Every  missionary  sent  there  by  different  boards  has  received 
their  active  assistance.     Divine  service  is  regularly  maintained 
in  the  towns  where  the  company  has  influence,  and,  we  believe, 
nowhere  else.     Every  Sabbath  school  in  the  Territory  has  been 
formed  with  the  assistance  of  the  Company,  or  its  officers.    Every 
church  organized  has  been  organized  with  their  cooperation. 

3.  For  Education. — Schools  will  be  in  operation  at  Lawrence, 
at  Topeka,  at  Osawatomie  and  Hampden  before  the  end  of  July. 
These,  which  are  the  only  schools  in  the  Territory  of  which  we 
have  any  account,  are  due  to  the  exertions  of  the  New  England 
Emigrant  Aid  Company  and  its  officers. 

4.  For  Temperance. — The  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  scarce- 
ly exists  in  any  one  of  the  towns  founded  with  the  Company's 
assistance,  and  any  attempt  to  introduce  it  will  be  resisted  by 
their  citizens.     This  prohibition,  intended  in  the  first  instance 
for  the  benefit  of  the  towns,  will  approve  itself  to  you  as  the 
only  hope  for  the  Indians  still  remaining  in  that  Territory. 


133  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Such  Las  been  the  work  of  this  Company  in  one  year.  To 
carry  further  such  operations  in  these  towns,  and  to  plant  more 
towns  at  once  in  Kansas,  so  as  to  secure  its  future  destiny  before 
next  January,  the  Company  needs  $150,000.  We  think  it  highly 
desirable  that  that  sura  shall  be  furnished  by  those  who  will  con- 
tinue to  the  Company  the  Christian  direction  which  has  always 
guided  it.  We  address  this  statement  of  facts,  therefore,  to  every 
clergyman  in  New  England,  asking  for  it  their  careful  attention. 
For  each  of  those  gentlemen  we  hope  to  obtain  a  single  share  in 
the  stock  of  the  Company,  entitling  him  to  vote  at  its  annual 
meetings.  He  will  thus  be  made  a  life  member  of  the  Company. 

If  it  be  in  your  power  to  obtain,  at  once,  a  subscription  of 
twenty  dollars,  that  sum  will  purchase  a  share  for  you,  which 
will  be  at  once  taken  in  your  name.  For  the  shares  not  thus 
taken,  we  shall  at  once  set  on  foot  a  subscription  through  New 
England,  and  take  the  shares  in  the  name  of  the  remaining  cler- 
gymen. To  this  subscription  we  ask  your  assistance,  if  you  and 
your  friends  are  willing  to  subscribe  less  than  twenty  dollars,  or 
more.  It  is  desirable  that  this  subscription  be  made  at  once,  and 
we  rely  on  some  answer  from  you  at  your  earliest  convenience — 
if  possible,  before  the  loth  of  July.  A  stamped  envelope,  al- 
ready directed  to  one  of  our  Secretaries,  will  be  found  within. 

It  is  proper  to  state  that  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid 
Company  is  incorporated  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
and  that  no  stockholder  is  liable,  in  any  event,  for  anything  be- 
yond his  first  investment.  Subscriptions  of  any  amount  will  be 
at  once  acknowledged  in  the  papers  of  Boston.  This  plan  has 
been  so  favorably  received  before  its  general  publication,  that  we 
believe  the  requisite  number  of  shares  will  be  readily  subscribed 
for.  The  Essex  South  Conference  of  churches  has  provided,  it 
is  understood,  for  the  shares  of  all  its  members.  The  Worcester 
Association  has  undertaken  to  make  up  the  shares  of  all  its  mem- 
bers. From  clergymen  of  all  parts  of  New  England  we  have 
assurances  of  sympathy  and  cooperation. 

Yours,  in  Christian  fellowship, 
(Signed)    LYMAN  BEECHER, 

BARON  STOW,  Rowe-st.  Baptist  Church, 
CHARLES  LOWELL,  West  Church,  Boston, 
S.  STREETER,  Pastor  of  First  Universalist  Church, 
Committee  on  tlie  Ministers'  Memorial  of  1854. 


NAMES  AND  LETTERS.  133 

W.  E.  RICE,  Pastor  of  N.  E.  Church,  Bromfield  Street,  Boston. 

JOHN  H.  TWOMBLY,  Pastor  ofM.  E.  Church,  Hanover  Street,  Boston. 

EDWARD  BEECHER,  Pastor  of  Salcm-st.  Church,  Boston. 

T.  STARR  KING,  Pastor  of  Hollis-st.  Church,  Boston. 

JOHN  S.  STONE,  Brookline. 

IIosEA  BALLOU,  2o,  President  of  Tuffts  College,  Medford. 

CALVIN  E.  STOWE,  Andover. 

LEONARD  BACON,  New  Haven. 

JOEL  HAWES,  First  Church,  Hartford. 

HORACE  BUSHNELL,  North  Church,  Hartford. 

EDWARD  E.  HALE,  Worcester,         ^ 

II.  LINCOLN  WAYLAND,  Worcester,  I  SeereUnietf 

JOHN  G.  ADAMS,  Worcester, 

FRANKLIN  RAND,  Boston, 

July  2, 1855. 

LETTERS  OF  CLERGYMEN. 

FROM  REV.  HORACE  JAMES. 

WOEOEBTKB,  July  23J,  1S55. 

Rev.  Dr.  Clarke. 

DEAR  BROTHER,— Thus  do  the  people  of  my  Society  respond 
to  your  appeal  in  behalf  of  Temperance,  Freedom,  and  Religion 
in  Kansas :  we  have  made  our  collection,  and  to  the  result ! 
779  "Uts"  in  a  bag!  The  whole  congregation  desired  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  effort,  and  therefore  we  limited  them  to  three- 
cent  contributions.  And  here  they  are,  one  for  each  man,  each 
woman,  and  each  child  that  happened  to  be  at  church  on  the 
afternoon  of  yesterday.  The  result,  as  you  may  well  suppose, 
gratifies  me  hugely.  You  should  have  seen  the  zeal  with  which 
they  did  it.  Never  did  fingers  and  thumbs  move  more  nimbly 
in  the  performance  of  any  good  work.  Verily,  there  is  Iwpe  for 
Kansas,  when  multitudes  are  thus  interested  in  its  welfare.  To 
be  sure,  $23.37  is  a  small  sum ;  and  yet  it  is  no  little  matter 
that  Kansas  should  thus  be  connected  with  the  sympathy  and 
interest,  and,  I  hope,  the  prayers  of  seven  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine  individuals  of  my  flock.  I  send,  personally,  with  every 
coin  in  the  bag,  a  hearty  prayer  for  the  prosperity  of  your  noble 
enterprise. 

So  now  that  we  have  made  our  contribution,  please  forward 


134  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

your  certificate  of  stock,  for  we  intend  to  have  it  framed  and 
hung  up  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  my  study,  to  be  exhibited  to 
our  friends,  with  exultation,  after  Kansas  is  a  free  State. 
Yours  very  truly,  HORACE  JAMES, 

Pastor  of  First  Church  in  Worcester. 

P.S. — Please  credit  to  us  the  excess,  $3.37,  on  another  life- 
membership,  which  we  will  make  up,  if  it  be  needful,  in  another 
way.  H.  J. 

FROM  REV.  CHARLES  WALKER. 

PITTSFORD,  VT.,  Aug.  2,  *55. 

Committee  of  the  N.  E.  Emigrant  Aid  Co. 

GENTLEMEN, — I  inclose  twenty  dollars,  which  some  individu- 
als among  my  people  have  helped  me  to  make  up,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  obtaining  for  me  a  share  in  your  Company. 

In  addition  to  this  little  pecuniary  aid,  be  assured  you  have 
my  sympathy  and  prayers  in  behalf  of  your  enterprise,  in  this 
dark  day,  when  not  only  the  whole  force  of  the  slaveholding 
interest,  but  all  the  energies  of  "  the  powers  that  be,"  are  arrayed 
against  you.  May  God  prosper  the  right. 

Yours  very  truly,  CHAS.  WALKER. 

FROM  PROF.  THOMAS  C.  TJPHAM. 

BRUNSWICK,  ME.,  August  29, 1S55. 

T.  P.  BlancJiard,  Esq. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  send  with  this  sixty  dollars,  to  be  credited  as 
follows:  Prof.  Alpheus  S.  Packard,  $20  ;  Prof.  William  Smith, 
$20;  Thomas  C.  Upham,  $20— for  the  K  E.  Emigrant  Aid  Soci- 
ety for  Kansas. 

Please  send  receipts  or  certificates  of  membership  in  the  Soci- 
ety at  the  earliest  moment.  I  hope  to  send  something  more 
soon.  I  have  a  deep  feeling  that  Kansas  ought  to  be  and  must 
be  saved,  cost  what  it  will.  Very  sincerely  yours, 

THOMAS  C.  UPHAM. 

FROM  REV.  S.  B.  MORLEY. 

ATTI.KBOEO,  August  30, 1S55. 

REV. DR.  CLARK, — I  send  to  you  to-day,  by  express,  $26.25,  be- 
ing the  sum,  and  more,  which  you  requested  of  us  in  your  recent 
circular  in  behalf  of  the  Xew  England  Emigrant  Aid  Society. 
We  have,  both  pastor  and  people,  contributed  to  this  object  with 


LETTERS  AND  DONATIONS.  135 

the  most  hearty  good-will,  and  our  prayers  go  with  the  money. 
We  abhor  slavery,  not  for  its  occasional  atrocities  merely,  but  for 
its  inherent,  systematic  wickedness,  its  unblushing  repugnance  to 
God's  law,  its  impious  assumption  of  unlimited  power  over  men 
and  women. 

May  the  men  whom  your  Society  send  to  Kansas  be  true  men, 
feel  their  responsibilities,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  plant  there, 
never  to  be  plucked  up,  the  institutions  of  FREEDOM. 

S.  B.  MORLEY. 

FROM  REV.  W.  C.  JACKSON. 

LINCOLN,  MASS.,  Sept.  12, 1S55. 

Rev.  J.  S.  Clark,  D.D. 

DEAR  SIR, — Your  circular  for  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  came 
rather  inopportunely  for  us  farmers;  I  refer  to  the  season  of  the 
year.  We  have  raised  the  inclosed  fifteen  dollars  by  contribu- 
tion. I  hope  the  remainder  will  be  made  up. 

We  are  all  awake  to  the  struggle  in  Kansas.  We  say,  "Goon 
with  your  work  of  emigration.  Be  not  weary  in  well-doing." 
Let  us  pour  such  an  antislavery  element  into  that  swelling  pop- 
ulation that  whatever  political  success  slavery  may  obtain  there, 
the  very  atmosphere  shall  be  pestilential  to  it;  yea,  that  it  shall 
feel,  as  it  grows  up,  a  fire  burning  in  its  very  vitals,  and  destined 
speedily  to  consume  it.  Sincerely  yours, 

W.  C.  JACKSON. 

FROM  REV.  E.  N.  HIDDEN. 

MILFOUB,  N.  II.,  Aug.  15, 1S55. 

REV.  AND  DEAR  SIR, — Inclosed  you  will  find  twenty  dollars, 
a  contribution  from  the  Congregational  Church  and  Society  in 
Milford,  N.  H.,  to  the  New  England  Emigration  Aid  Society, 
to  constitute  their  pastor,  Rev.  E.  N.  Hidden,  a  life  member. 

Being  one  of  the  "3,050"  who  sent  our  memorial  down  to 
Congress  against  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  Kansas  and 
Nebraska,  but  which  they  basely  spurned,  it  is  very  gratifying 
to  me  now  to  know  that  the  alms  and  the  prayers  of  the  people 
are  going  up  as  a  memorial  before  God  against  the  same  evil. 
The  one-dollar  bill  with  the  writing  on  the  back  was  put  into 
the  contribution  as  it  is.  Please  acknowledge  this  in  the  Puri- 
tan Recorder,  that  I  may  know  of  its  safe  passage. 

Yours  truly,  E.  N.  HIDDEN. 


136  TIIE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

This  letter  has  the  following  indorsement:  "On  the  back  of 
one  of  the  bills  inclosed  was  as  follows:  'No  slavery  in  Kansas 
or  Nebraska!  Down  with  the  slavery  extensionists  and  dough- 
faces! Hurrah  for  free  schools,  free  labor,  free  men,  and  free 
soil!"' 

The  clergymen  of  the  free  States,  with  their  con- 
gregations, were  (as  a  rule),  practically,  Kansas 
Leagues,  stimulating  patriotic  zeal,  and  constantly 
furnishing  reliable  reinforcements  to  the  well-disci- 
plined army  of  freemen  who  marched  to  the  field 
of  conflict  under  the  guidance  and  protection  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  companies.  Let  them  be  re- 
membered with  honor  and  gratitude.* 

*  The  letters  above  quoted  are  specimens  of  hundreds— per- 
haps thousands— received  by  the  company. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   NORTHERN   DISUNIONISTS. 

THE  sentimental  agency  professedly  hostile  to 
slavery  established  and  led  by  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison was  older  than  the  political  organization 
known  as  the  Free-soil  Party,  though  really  infe- 
rior to  it  both  in  numbers  and  influence.  Their 
purposes  were  entirely  different,  and  their  plans 
had  nothing  in  common.  Garrison  called  himself 
an  "  immediativist."  He  demanded  the  immediate 
extinction  of  slavery,  without  any  compensation  to 
the  owners  of  slaves.  This  was  his  policy  in  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Liberator.  In  a  few  years,  how- 
ever, he  had  found  so  little  response  favorable  to 
these  views  that  he  relinquished  them  for  the  rally- 
ing cry  of  "  Disunion."  From  this  time  to  the  end 
of  his  work  he  contended  that  "  disunion  was  the 
corner-stone  of  all  true  antislavery."  The  follow- 
ing resolutions  express  the  extreme  views  of  the 
Garrisonites,  now  greatly  reduced  in  numbers  by 
the  secession  of  their  ablest  and  best  men  to  form 
the  "Liberty  Party."  A  history  of  the  quarrel 
between  these  two  sections  can  be  found  in  the 
Liberator  and  the  Liberty  Party  Almanac.  John 
G.  Palfrey  and  his  friends  could  not  subscribe  to 
the  ruinous  doctrines  of  anarchy  and  disunion. 


138  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

They  therefore  withdrew  from  Garrison,  and  took 
with  them  the  most  patriotic  and  influential  of  his 
followers.  All  salutary  restraint  having  been  re- 
moved, the  fanatics  gave  vent  to  their  wildest  fan- 
cies as  follows : 

Wendell  Phillips,  at  the  A.  A.  S.  Convention  in 
the  Tabernacle,  New  York  City,  May  4,  1848,  of- 
fered the  following  resolution,  which  was  passed : 

"  That  this  Society  deems  it  a  duty  to  reiterate  its  convictions 
that  the  only  exodus  of  the  slave  out  of  his  present  house  of 
bondage  is  OVEU  THE  RUINS  OF  THE  PRESENT  AMERICAN  CHURCH 

AND  THE  PRESENT  AMERICAN  UNION." 

In  May,  1856,  Mr.  Garrison  offered  the  following 
resolution  at  a  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti- 
slavery  Society : 

"Resolved:  That  the  one  great  issue  before  the  country  is 
THE  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  UNION,  in  comparison  with  which  all 
other  issues  with  the  slave  power  are  as  dust  in  the  balance ; 
therefore  we  will  give  ourselves  to  the  work  of  annulling  this 
'  covenant  with  death '  as  essential  to  our  own  innocency,  and 
the  speedy  and  everlasting  overthrow  of  the  slave  system." 

The  following  was  also  adopted  by  the  Aboli- 
tionists in  New  York  City  in  December,  1859 : 

"  Resolved :  That  we  invite  a  free  correspondence  with  the 
Disunionists  of  the  South,  in  order  to  devise  the  most  suitable 
way  and  means  to  secure  the  dissolution  of  the  present  imperfect 
and  inglorious  union  between  the  free  and  slave  States." 

In  May,  1854,  Mr.  Garrison  says  editorially :  "  A 
thousand  times  accursed  be  the  Union."  On  the 
.5th  of  the  next  July  he  publicly  burned  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  at  South  Framingham, 
Mass. 


WERE  THEY  PATRIOTS?  139 

In  these  few  quotations  the  Disunionists  have 
given  convincing  evidence  of  their  vicious  political 
character.  They  despised  law.  They  burned  the 
Constitution.  They  cursed  the  Union.  They  were 
the  original  secessionists,  and  had  advocated  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union  for  twenty  years  before 
Jefferson  Davis  tried  to  put  their  doctrines  into 
practice. 

With  such  views  and  purposes  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States  had  no  sympathy.  The  Aboli- 
tionists may  have  had  good  motives,  but  their  judg- 
ment was  invariably  bad.  Their  methods  were 
everywhere  condemned.  They  never  attained  to 
the  dignity  or  influence  of  a  party  or  even  a  fac- 
tion. They  were  a  cabal,  active,  noisy,  and  pugna- 
cious, but  never  effective.  By  their  own  showing, 
a  quarter  of  a  century  spent  in  denouncing  the 
Church,  the  clergy,  and  the  Union  had  accom- 
plished nothing.  Slavery  had  grown  stronger  ev- 
ery day,  while  opposition  to  it  had  not  increased  at 
all.  Massachusetts  was  as  sound  an  antislavery 
State  before  they  were  born  as  it  has  ever  been 
since.  But  she  was  for  legal  and  constitutional 
methods  only,  and  always  for  the  Union. 

In  17S7  Nathan  Dane,  one  of  our  representatives 
in  Congress,  revived  the  ordinance  introduced  three 
years  earlier  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  secured  its 
passage.  All  this  was  before  Garrison  was  born! 
But  such  antislavery  action  was  not  repeated  dur- 
ing the  entire  period  of  Mr.  Garrison's  efforts  for 
disunion.  In  all  that  time  slavery  was  unrestrict- 
ed, and  made  steady  progress. 


140  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Slavery  never  had  a  legal  existence  in  Massachu- 
setts. The  people  never  wanted  it  and  always 
hated  it.  They  hated  its  adjuncts  and  attendants 
of  manacles  and  auction -blocks  as  much  before 
Garrison  was  born  as  they  did  after  he  had  pict- 
ured them  in  the  Liberator  for  twenty-five  years. 
His  incessant  pecking  at  the  leaves  and  twigs  of 
the  upas-tree  of  slavery  seemed  to  stimulate  rather 
than  retard  its  growth.  The  Northern  people  ar- 
dently desired  to  destroy  the  tree  itself,  and  were 
ready  to  adopt  any  legal  and  constitutional  plan 
which  might  do  this  work.  Garrison's  method  of 
casting  out  a  devil  by  splitting  the  patient  in  two 
lengthwise  they  did  not  approve,  for  two  reasons : 

1st.  Because  the  patient  would  die ; 

2d.  Because  the  devil  would  live. 

Some  friends  of  the  Abolitionists  still  claim  that 
Garrison  and  his  associates  founded  the  Liberty  and 
Free-soil  parties.  This  claim  is  the  exact  opposite 
of  the  truth.  They  opposed  both  these  parties, 
and  hated  their  champions  more  than  they  hat- 
ed the  slave-holders  themselves.  They  constantly 
abused  every  leading  antislavery  man  who  was  not 
a  Disunionist.  Ample  proof  of  this  can  be  seen  in 
the  editorials  of  the  Liberator  against  Horace  Mann, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  and  Dr.  Bellows.  Lincoln,  Sew- 
ard,  Wade,  Sumner,  and  Wilson  were  not  spared.* 

*  At  a  meeting  of  the  Worcester  County  South  Division  A.  S. 
Society  held  at  Worcester,  August  12,  1860,  Parker  Pillsbury 
offered  the  following  resolution,  which  was  adopted : 

"Resolved:  That  in  the  two  recently  published  speeches  of 
Charles  Sumner,  we  see  the  blinding,  bewildering,  and  deprav- 


THEY  ABUSED  GOOD  MEN.  141 

About  the  time  of  Sumner's  death,  Mr.  Garrison 
went  before  a  committee  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  to  protest  against  expunging  some  fool- 
ish resolutions  on  record  denouncing  that  famous 
Senator.* 

But  why  prolong  the  description  ?  Let  the  Abo- 
litionists draw  their  own  portraits.  They  still  exist 
in  the  columns  of  the  Liberator.  That  paper  is  an 
arsenal  amply  sufficient  to  furnish  arms  to  a  mill- 
ion of  their  assailants. 

With  all  their  keenness  of  vision,  the  Abolition- 
ists never  saw  anything  as  it  was.  With  all  their 
eloquence,  they  never  advocated  any  cause  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue.  With  all  their  prophetic  power  and 
practice,  they  never  predicted  any  event  which  came 
to  pass.  With  all  their  love  of  freedom,  they  con- 
stantly increased  the  burdens  of  the  slaves.  De- 
manding immediate  emancipation,  they  strove  to 
retard  the  overthrow  of  slavery.  Contending  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union  as  the  only  means  of 
destroying  slavery,  they  saw  slavery  destroyed  not 
only  without  their  aid,  but  against  their  protest, 

ing  effect  of  American  politics,  and  of  contact  with  slave-holders 
— the  former,  made  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  being  a  four  hours'  ar- 
gument against  the  'five-headed  barbarism  of  slavery,'  and  re- 
pudiated by  many  of  the  leaders  of  Republicanism;  and  the  lat- 
ter a  full  admission  of  the  constitutionality  of  slave-holding,  and 
an  eloquent  argument  in  favor  of  the  election  of  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin,  both  of  whom  believe  in  s\&\c-Tiunting  as  well  as  slave- 
holding,  and  who  virtually  declare  in  their  platform  that  the  no- 
ble John  Brown  was  one  of  the  gravest  criminals  who  ever  died 
by  aJialter." 
*  See  "  Warriugton  Pen  Portraits,"  page  360. 


143  THE  .KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

while  the  Union  was  preserved  and  made  perma- 
nent and  harmonious.*     Incessantly  denouncing 


*  The  following  letter,  written  by  Col.  Asa  H.  Waters  a  short 
time  before  his  death,  is  so  conclusive  in  its  statements  that  it 
may  appropriately  be  given  a  place  here. 

"  MII.LBUBT,  Aor.  20th,  1SS6. 
"Mr.  Thayer : 

"DEAR  SIR, — When  the  Free-soil  Party  was  formed  in  '48 
Garrison  and  his  party  had  labored  seventeen  years  and  failed  to 
carry  a  single  town  in  New  England.  In  one  year  we  put  nine- 
ty members  into  the  Legislature,  the  second  year  we  carried 
Worcester  County,  and  the  third  year  put  a  Jupiter  Tonans — 
Charles  Sumner — into  the  very  citadel  of  the  slave  power.  Then, 
at  a  convention  in  Worcester,  Wilson  had  the  party  christened 
the  Republican  Party,  with  the  same  Free  Soil  platform,  and  on 
that  we  elected  Lincoln  President,  and  he  abolished  Slavery. 

"  In  all  this  we  had  the  bitter  opposition  of  Garrison  and  his 
party,  which  finally  clasped  hands  with  the  Disunionists  of  the 
South,  in  a  determined  effort  to  break  up  the  Union.  Had  they 
succeeded,  so  far  from  abolishing  slavery,  they  would  have  vast- 
ly extended  it.  The  design  of  the  South  was  to  cope  in  New 
Mexico,  Arizona,  Indian  Territory,  Utah,  and  Southern  Califor- 
nia, and  thus  build  up  a  great  Southern  Empire  founded  on 
Slavery.  I  enclose  the  resolution  in  which  they  proposed  the 
unholy  alliance.  A  committee  was  chosen,  and  I  think  M.  D. 
Conway  was  chairman.  The  correspondence  was  never  pub- 
lished. Secession  movements  soon  after  commenced,  and  in  a 
little  over  a  year  the  war  broke  out.  It  was  suppressed  and 
slavery  abolished  by  the  patriotic  Union  sentiment  of  the  North, 
which  always  was  its  predominant  political  sentiment.  'Down 
with  the  Disunionists;'  'Death  to  traitors,  slavery  or  no  slavery,' 
were  the  cries  that  rang  through  the  ranks ;  and  for  a  long  time 
the  army  returned  fugitive  slaves.  At  length  it  was  discovered 
that  the  rebels  were  using  their  slaves  as  a  means  of  strength, 
which  made  them  contraband  of  war  and  liable  to  confiscation. 
Then  their  obstinate  resistance  created  a 'military  necessity,' 
and  on  these  two  principles  rather  than  by  any  authority  in  the 


GARRISON  RESOLUTIONS.  143 

the  clergy  and  churches  of  the  Northern  States  as 
the  upholders  of  slavery,  they  lived  to  see  these 
among  the  foremost  agencies  in  its  destruction  by 
the  methods  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  which 
the  Abolitionists  hated,  ridiculed,  and  opposed. 

The  following  resolutions  plainly  show  how  the 
disunionists  regarded  all  the  political  antislavery 
parties.  The  Liberator  of  September  15,  1848,  re- 
cords the  following  resolution,  passed  in  the  A.  A. 
S.  Convention : 

4 '  Reached :  That  James  G.  Birncy  was  dropped  by  the  Liberty 
party,  on  the  ground  that  John  P.  Hale  (who  was  never  an  Ab- 
olitionist) was  the  more  available  candidate — and  now  J.  P.  Hale 


United  States  Constitution,  President  Lincoln  issued  his  procla- 
mation. 

"The  abolitionists  opposed  his  election,  and  being  non-resist- 
ants, were  rarely  found  in  the  ranks,  and  they  thus  failed  for 
the  most  part  to  become  identified  with  the  active  forces  that 
abolished  slavery. 

"And  yet,  for  twenty  years  the  press  has  been  teeming  with 
their  effusions  in  poetry  and  prose,  to  convince  the  world  that 
they  abolished  slavery  1  They  have  done  much  to  falsify  history, 
and  produce  wrong  impressions  on  the  rising  generation.  A 
duty  devolves  on  those  who  know  the  facts,  to  counteract  and 
set  back  this  tide.  But  how  shall  it  be  done?  Where  is  the 
press  that  can  be  enlisted? 

"I  had  a  long  controversy  with  Oliver  Johnson;  he  finally 
jumped  the  fence  and  cleared  from  the  field,  declaring  he  never 
made  the  issue  that  Garrison  abolished  slavery.  The  editor 
(Slack)  said  he  did.  He  boasted  of  being  '  a  member  of  the  Re- 
publican Party.'  In  the  Greeley  campaign  of  '72  against  Grant, 
he  labored  with  his  Southern  allies  and  they  carried  six  Southern 
States,  but  no  Northern.  That  shows  his  consistency. 
"Yours  respectfully, 

"A.  H.  WATERS." 


144  TIIE  KAXSAS  CRUSADE. 

is  superseded  by  Martin  Van  Buren  (an  open  enemy  of  anti- 
slavery)  for  the  same  reason — which  shows  that  party  as  devoid 
of  integrity  and  fixed  principle  as  either  of  the  others." 

The  Liberator,  November,  1860,  records  this  res- 
olution, adopted  by  A.  A.  S.  Convention : 

"All  who  are  parties  to  the  Union  and  supporters  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  Federal  Government  are  guilty  of  sustaining  the 
iniquitous  system  of  slavery." 

The  Liberator  of  June,  185-i,  has  the  following 
resolution  denouncing  the  Free-soil  party  (adopted 
by  A.  A.  S.  Convention )  as : 

"  Devoid  of  principle,  false  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  utterly 
unworthy  of  the  confidence  and  support  of  those  who  would  la- 
bor effectively  for  the  abolition  of  slavery." 

The  Liberator  of  June  C,  1856,  gives  the  follow- 
ing speech  of  "Wendell  Phillips,  made  before  the 
N.  E.  A.  A.  S.  Convention,  in  Boston : 

"But  Mr.  Fremont — what  claims  has  he  upon  the  friends  of 
freedom?  Our  friend,  Theodore  Parker,  says  very  truly  that  he 
has  got  a  good  wife.  Well,  if  all  of  us  who  have  got  good  wives 
are  to  be  put  up  for  President,  there  will  be  a  great  many  candi- 
dates. We  used  to  hear  of  the  goodness  of  Judge  McLean's 
wife,  and  he  made  more  pro-slavery  law  on  the  bench  than  all 
the  pro-slavery  judges  put  together,  in  spite  of  his  wife;  and  now 
Mr.  Giddings  says  he  is  ready  to  write  on  his  banner  even  the 
name  of  McLean.  At  least  he  said  so  while  there  was  a  Kansas, 
but  now  she  is  gone,  he  may  rise  to  a  higher  thought  and  be  un- 
willing to  struggle  for  a  broken  reed." 

But  while  these  fanatics  ridiculed  the  platforms 
of  all  political  parties,  they  were  evidently  proud 
of  principles  like  the  following.  At  an  anniversary 


DISUNION  APPLAUDED.  145 

meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Antislavery  Society, 
held  in  Faneuil  Hall  January  23  and  24,  1850,  it 
was 

"Resolved:  That  we  seek  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,"  etc., . . . 
and  that 

"  We  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  the  enemies  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, Union,  and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
friends  of  the  new  confederacy  of  States,  where  there  shall  be 
no  union  with  slave-holders,"  etc.,  .  .  .  and 

"We  proclaim  it  as  our  unalterable  purpose  and  determina- 
tion to  live  and  labor  for  a  dissolution  of  the  present  Union,  by 
all  lawful  and  just,  though  bloodless  and  pacific  means,"  etc. 

On  the  above,  Mr.  George  Ticknor  Curtis  com- 
ments as  follows : 

"  Certain  obvious  reflections  will  occur  to  those  who  may 
hereafter  read  these  proceedings  in  the  light  of  what  has  actually 
occurred.  First,  that,  whether  attempted  at  the  North  or  at  the 
South,  the  idea  of  breaking  up  the  Union  and  destroying  the 
Constitution  by  '  bloodless  and  pacific  means '  was  a  chimera, 
palpably  impossible;  .  .  .  secondly,  that  if  it  was  right  for  such 
sentiments  and  purposes  to  be  proclaimed  in  Boston,  it  was 
equally  right  to  proclaim  them  in  Nashville." — Curtis's  "Life  of 
Webster,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  399,  400. 

Such  were  Garrison  and  his  methods.  He  began 
his  work  with  such  anathemas  against  slave-holders 
and  all  who  did  not  subscribe  to  his  own  wild  the- 
ories that  men  who  before  had  often  expressed 
strong  antislavery  convictions  were  driven  to  si- 
lence lest  they  should  be  confounded  with  the  dis- 
unionists. 

Dr.  Horace  Bushnell,  in  his  famous  sermon  in 

1839,  said  to  these  fanatics :  "  Our  clergy  used  to 

set  forth  on  fast-days  and  other  like  occasions,  as 

I  recollect  with  the  greatest  satisfaction,  the  na- 

7 


146  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

tional  crime  of  slavery.  And  when  they  prayed 
on  the  subject,  they  prayed  for  emancipation— did 
it,  too,  plena  corde,  and  without  adding  ingenious 
qualifications,  as  we  are  driven  to  do,  to  show  that 
we  are  not  members  of  your  society." 

In  this  way  the  expression  of  antislavery  senti- 
ments was  suppressed  even  among  loyal  and  pa- 
triotic clergymen.  Political  parties  were  even  more 
sensitive,  and  dreaded  above  all  things  the  charge 
of  sympathy  with  Garrisonism. 

In  support  of  what  has  already  been  said,  some 
opinions  of  eminent  authors,  statesmen,  and  jour- 
nalists concerning  the  disunion  Abolitionists  and 
their  methods  are  here  introduced.  These  are  only 
a  minute  fraction — not  a  hundredth  part — of  what 
could  easily  be  furnished.  Extending  through  a 
period  of  thirty  years,  they  present  a  faithful  pict- 
ure of  these  lunatics  in  every  stage  of  their  devel- 
opment, or  rather  of  their  inverted  evolution.  They 
furnish,  too,  abundant  proof  of  the  utter  detesta- 
tion and  scorn  of  neaply  all  the  people  for  this 
noisy  cabal  of  irrepressible  scolds. 

These  sickly  minds  that "  fevered  into  false  cre- 
ation" had  no  admirers  among  sound  and  healthy 
patriots. 

Theodore  Eoosevelt,  in  his  admirable  "Life  of 
Benton,"  sustains  the  preceding  views  with  charac- 
teristic courage  and  ability  as  follows : 

"The  cause  of  the  Abolitionists  has  had  such  a  halo  shed 
round  it  by  the  after-course  of  events,  -which  in  reality  they  did 
very  little  to  shape,  that  it  has  been  usual  to  speak  of  them  with 
absurdly  exaggerated  praise.  .  .  . 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT.  147 

"The  Abolition  societies  were  only  in  a  very  restricted  de- 
gree the  causes  of  the  growing  feeling  in  the  North  against 
slavery :  they  are  rather  to  be  regarded  as  themselves  manifes- 
tations of  that  feeling.  .  .  . 

"  When  the  Abolitionist  movement  started  it  was  avowedly 
designed  to  be  cosmopolitan  in  character;  the  originators  look- 
ed down  upon  any  merely  national  or  patriotic  feeling.  This 
again  deservedly  took  away  from  their  influence.  In  fact,  it 
would  have  been  most  unfortunate  had  a  majority  of  the  North- 
erners been  from  the  beginning  in  hearty  accord  with  the  Abo- 
litionists; at  the  best,  it  would  have  resulted  at  that  time  in  the 
disruption  of  the  Union  and  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  in  the 
South.  .  .  . 

"But  slavery  was  an  interest  common  to  the  whole  South. 
When  it  was  felt  to  be  in  any  way  menaced,  all  Southerners 
came  together  for  its  protection;  and  from  the  time  of  the  rise 
of  the  Abolitionists  onward  the  Separatist  movement  throughout 
the  South  began  to  identify  itself  with  the  maintenance  of  sla- 
very, and  gradually  to  develop  greater  and  greater  strength.  .  .  . 

"Owing  to  a  variety  of  causes,  the  Abolitionists  have  received 
a  vast  amount  of  hysterical  praise,  which  they  do  not  deserve, 
and  have  been  credited  with  deeds  done  by  other  men  whom 
they  in  reality  hampered  and  opposed  rather  than  aided.  After 
1840,  the  professed  Abolitionists  formed  but  a  small  and  com- 
paratively unimportant  portion  of  the  forces  that  were  working 
towards  the  restriction  and  ultimate  destruction  of  slavery;  and 
much  of  what  they  did  was  positively  harmful  to  the  cause  for 
which  they  were  fighting.  Those  of  their  number  who  consid- 
ered the  Constitution  as  a  league  with  death  and  hell,  and  who 
therefore  advocated  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  acted  as  ration- 
ally as  would  auti-polygamists  nowadays,  if,  to  show  their  dis- 
approval of  Mormonism,  they  should  advocate  that  Utah  should 
be  allowed  to  form  a  separate  nation.  The  only  hope  of  ulti- 
mately suppressing  slavery  lay  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union, 
and  every  Abolitionist  who  argued  or  signed  a  petition  for  its 
dissolution  was  doing  as  much  to  perpetuate  the  evil  he  com- 
plained of  as  if  he  had  been  a  slave  holder.  .  .  . 

"  The  Liberty  party  was  not  in  any  sense  the  precursor  of  the 
Republican  party,  which  was  based  as  much  on  expediency  as 
abstract  right,  and  was  therefore  able  to  accomplish  good  in- 


148  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

stead  of  harm.  To  say  that  the  extreme  Abolitionists  triumphed 
in  Republican  success  and  were  causes  of  it,  is  as  absurd  as  it 
would  be  to  call  Prohibitionists  successful  if,  after  countless 
futile  efforts  totally  to  prohibit  the  liquor  traffic,  and  after 
savage  denunciation  of  those  \vho  try  to  regulate  it,  they  should 
then  turn  round  and  form  a  comparatively  insignificant  portion 
of  a  victorious  high-license  party." 

The  five  quotations  which  follow  are  from  states- 
men and  journalists  of  world -wide  fame.  They 
were  contemporary  with  the  Garrison  anarchists, 
and  knew  whereof  they  spoke.  The  well-consid- 
ered words  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  Thurlow  Weed, 
Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Horace  Greeley,  and  Samuel 
Bowles  will  be  good  authority  with  the  American 
people  long  after  the  Garrison  eulogists  shall  have 
ceased  to  falsify  history. 

The  following  extracts  are  quoted  from  the  diary 
of  John  Quincy  Adams : 

"September,  1837.— Lundy  and  the  Abolitionists  generally  are 
constantly  urging  me  to  indiscreet  movements,  which  would 
ruin  me,  and  weaken  and  not  strengthen  their  cause. 

"November,  1838.— Dr.  Channing  appeared  to  entertain  great 
apprehensions  for  the  Union,  and  deep  concern  at  the  violence 
of  the  abolition  spirit.  .  .  .  The  result  of  their  interposition  has 
been  hitherto  mischievous  and,  I  believe,  injurious  to  their  own 
cause. 

"September,  1839. — But  this,  I  suppose,  emanates  from  the  en- 
thusiasm of  antislavery,  not  yet  refrigerated,  as  with  the  great 
mass  of  Abolitionists  it  has  been,  by  the  dampers  which  I  have 
pnt  upon  their  senseless  and  overbearing  clamor  for  the  imme- 
diate, total,  uncompensated  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

"August,  1840. — Garrison  and  the  non-resistant  Abolitionists, 
Brownson  and  the  Marat  Democrats,  phrenology,  and  animal 
magnetism  all  couie  iu,  furnishing  each  some  plausible  rascality 


THURLOW   WEED— R.  H.  DANA.  149 

as  an  ingredient  for  the  bubbling  caldron  of  religion  and  poli- 
tics." 

Thurlow  Weed  (page  306,  "  Memoirs  ")  says : 

"With  opponents  of  slavery,  led  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  I 
lived  and  labored  in  harmony  and  zeal.  We  were  eternally  op- 
posed by  Birney,  Goodell,  Garrison,  and  other  Abolitionists, 
who,  in  election  so  cast  their  '  third  party '  vote  as  to  elect  pro- 
slavery  Governors,  Congressmen,  and  Presidents.  Finally,  by 
defeating  Mr.  Clay,  they  brought  Texas  into  the  Union  as  a  slave 
State.  That  class  of  Abolitionists  threw  themselves  across  the 
track  of  all  healthful  political  organization." 

Again,  on  page  305,  he  says : 

"  William  Lloyd  Garrison  closed  his  review  of  thirty  years  of 
editorial  service  with  an  article  glorying  at  the  prospect  of  dis- 
union. ...  In  a  speech  at  Boston,  Wendell  Phillips  said:  'Let 
the  South  march  off;  with  flags  and  trumpets  we  will  speed  the 
parting  guest.  Let  her  not  stand  upon  the  order  of  her  going, 
but  go  at  once.  Give  her  forts,  arsenals,  and  sub-treasuries. 
Give  her  jewels  of  silver  and  gold,  and  rejoice  that  she  has  de- 
parted. All  hail  disunion!' " 

Kichard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  March,  1861,  in  a  speech 
made  in  Manchester,  N.  H.^  said : 

"  These  Abolitionists  at  the  North  of  whom  I  speak,  left  to 
themselves,  and  of  their  own  force,  attract  little  attention  and 
have  little  influence.  Their  disconnection  from  politics,  their 
secession  attitude,  their  disunion  purposes,  render  it  so.  I  have 
known  them  from  my  college  days,  and  I  do  not  see  but  that 
they  have  the  same  orators  and  much  the  same  audiences  they 
had  then.  I  do  not  see  that  they  have  added  one  convert  of  note 
to  their  ranks,  or  even  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  population. 
Their  organ  is  the  Liberator.  Who  sees  the  Liberator?  Is  it 
sold  at  our  railroad-stations,  or  in  our  horse-cars  or  steam-cars, 
or  at  our  steamboat-landings,  or  hawked  in  the  streets?  I  see  a 
good  deal  of  what  is  going  on  in  Boston,  but  to  the  best  of  my 
recollection  I  never  saw  it  but  once  in  my  life,  and  then  it  was 
sent  to  me  by  mail  from  a  Southern  city." 


150  THE   KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

New  York  Tribune,  December,  1860  : 

HORACE  GREELEY  ON  WENDELL  PHILLIPS'S  "HO- 
LIER THAN  THOU." 

'"Did  you  ever,'  says  Rabelais,  'see  a  dog  with  a  marrow- 
bone in  his  mouth — the  beast  of  all  others,  according  to  Plato, 
the  most  philosophical?  If  you  have  seen  him,  you  might  have 
remarked  with  what  devotion  and  circumspection  he  wards  and 
watches  it;  with  what  care  he  keeps  it;  how  fervently  he  holds 
it;  how  prudently  he  gobbles  it;  with  what  affection  he  breaks 
it;  and  with  what  diligence  he  sucks  it.'  Antislavery  is  Mr. 
Phillips's  bone,  and  no  man  can  venture  to  indulge  in  a  little 
philanthropy  without  provoking  from  that  gentleman  a  sub- 
acidulous  snarl.  He  dotes  only  on  those  who  disagree  with  him, 
and  all  his  converts  immediately  become  the  objects,  not,  per- 
haps, of  his  jealousy,  but  certainly  of  his  suspicion.  He  loves 
his  enemies  because  it  is  so  delightful  to  pummel  them,  and  he 
dilates  with  pleasure  over  some  fresh  and  uncommon  wicked- 
ness, just  as  a  surgeon  admires  a  large  ulcer  better  than  a  cheek 
which  health  has  incarnadined.  .  .  .  Mr.  Phillips  is  a  close-com- 
munion reformer.  You  must  take  the  wine  out  of  his  cup,  or 
you  shall  not  have  a  drop.  You  must  receive  the  bread  from 
his  plate,  or  you  shall  not  swallow  a  scrap.  ...  A  bigot  of  liber- 
ality, a  sectarian  anti-sectarian,  a  sour  philanthropist,  is  not  a 
pleasing  object.  Mr.  Phillips  should  remember  that  hostility  to 
human  bondage  cannot  be  monopolized  by  seven  men  in  Corn- 
hill,  Boston;  and  that  a  presidential  election  is  of  more  conse- 
quence in  the  world's  turmoil  than  six  '  antislavery  bazaars.' .  .  . 
He  lacks  largeness  of  views  to  that  deplorable  extent  that  he 
cannot  conceive  of  a  tempest  outside  of  a  teapot.  A  little  con- 
vention in  a  little  village  passing  a  little  series  of  little  resolu- 
tions, and  just  a  little  disturbed  by  the  lewd  and  base,  is  to  Mr. 
Phillips  the  most  august  of  all  possible  human  gatherings.  .  .  . 
It  is  his  misfortune,  as  it  is  that  of  the  handful  who  consort  with 
him,  that  they  look  at  large  events  through  the  large  end  of  the 
telescope,  while,  when  little  affairs  are  to  be  scrutinized,  there  is 
no  microscope  powerful  enough  to  satisfy  their  desire  for  mag- 
nificence. .  .  .  Everything  must  be  done  in  the  routine  of  a 
clique.  You  must  subscribe  for  the  Liberator.  You  must  be 


GREELEY  AND  BOWLES.  151 

mobbed  twice  a  year — once  in  New  York  and  once  in  Boston. 
You  must  think  as  Mr.  Garrison  thinks,  and  you  must  not  think 
as  anybody  else  thinks.  If  you  are  found  faithful  in  these  things 
you  are  esteemed  faithful  in  all.  .  . .  Our  only  doubt  is  whether 
it  is  even  worth  while  to  set  them  right.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
most  merciful  to  leave  a  mill-horse  to  stagger  in  his  circle  to  the 
end,  for  he  will  fall  down  if  taken  out  of  it,  and  even  if  he  should 
survive  the  transplantation  he  will  be  utterly  useless  for  the 
plain,  straightforward  highway." 

Daily  Evening  Traveller,  Boston,  Mass.,  May  29, 
1857:  " 

SAMUEL  BOWLES'S  EDITORIAL. 

"  The  great  majority  of  the  Garrisonian  party  forfeit  all  claim 
to  our  esteem  by  being  blasphemous,  vituperative,  coarse,  and 
vile  in  their  manners  and  language.  We  need  not  instance  a 
man  named  Foss,  who  has  the  impudence  to  claim  the  title  Rev- 
erend, and  who  began  a  sentence  in  a  speech  at  New  York  week 
before  last  with  the  phrase,  'I  hate  the  Union,'  and  ended  it  by 
saying,  '  I  hate  Jesus  Christ.'  All  the  leaders  of  the  Garrisonian 
party  sat  around,  but  no  one  of  them  rebuked  the  monstrous 
blasphemy.  The  speech  was  circulated  through  all  the  Southern 
papers,  and  Mr.  Foss  was  denounced  as  '  a  Republican.'  If  he 
had  died  in  his  cradle  he  would  have  done  better  by  himself 
than  to  have  lived  to  commit  this  sin. 

"The  same  style  of  thought  has  been  manifested  at  this  gath- 
ering in  the  Mclodeon.  We  listened  yesterday  to  the  compre- 
hensive abuse  uttered  by  Mr.  Iligginson,  who  also  claims  to  be  a 
minister  of  the  gospel.  If  we  had  stayed  five  minutes  longer 
than  we  did,  and  his  effect  had  been  equal  to  his  effort,  we  should 
have  been  convinced  that  the  population  of  the  world  consisted 
of  one  billion  of  depraved  wretches  and  one  perfect  man  named 
Higginson.  It  was  just  so  with  the  whole  of  them,  the  same 
eternal  whine,  redeemed  only  in  the  case  of  Wendell  Phillips  by 
eloquence. 

"All  such  stuff  does  harm.  The  few  Garrisonians  whom  we 
believe  honest  in  uttering  it,  we  wish  could  be  brought  under 
different  influences,  for  they  are  unconsciously  injuring  the  anti- 
slavery  cause.  They  arc  sustaining  by  their  weight  of  character 


152  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

an  organization  four-fifths  of  whose  members  are  selfish  or  indis- 
creet men  and  unsexed  women;  an  organization  which  has  be- 
come fruitless,  and  will  die  in  the  next  generation.  .  .  . 

"  For  the  remainder  of  the  Garrisonian  party,  the  strong-mind- 
ed women,  and  the  professional  humanitarians  who  earn  their 
daily  bread  by  injuring  the  noble  cause  they  propose  to  serve, 
we  have  no  feelings  but  of  ridicule  and  contempt.  It  is  useless 
to  meet  them  in  argument.  They  are  not  worth  treating  with 
pity.  One  of  their  peculiarities  is  a  key  to  their  whole  charac- 
ter. The  nearer  a  well-behaved  man  comes  to  their  professed 
antislavery  doctrines,  the  more  vilely  they  abuse  him." 

Without  distracting  the  attention  of  the  reader 
.by  useless  comment,  I  here  submit  to  his  judgment 
twenty-two  letters  and  editorials  from  writers  in 
widely  separated  localities,  and  all  contemporary 
with  those  whom  they  criticise.  These  are  only 
representative ;  a  thousand  more  of  like  import 
could  be  readily  furnished. 

Extract  from  a  letter  of  Rev.  John  Guthrie  to 
George  Thompson,  in  the  Glasgow  Christian  Wit- 
ness, 1851 : 

"What  is  this  organization — this  American  Antislavery  Soci- 
ety— to  which  we  must  all  succumb,  and  after  which  British 
'.Evangelicals,'  with  Mr.  George  Thompson  at  their  head,  must 
be  content  to  be  dragged  through  the  infidel  mire?  What  but  a 
miserable  faction — a  minute  fraction  of  the  American  people — a 
seething  caldron  of  infidel  and  anarchical  agitation,  comprising 
the  various  shades  of  rationalism  in  New  England,  and  sending 
forth  agents  on  a  crusade  against  both  the  Church  and  the  State, 
some  of  whom  are  apostate  ministers,  and  are  as  audacious  blas- 
phemers as  ever  polluted  with  their  foul  breath  the  moral  atmos- 
phere of  our  world?  .  .  . 

"  There  are  some  things  worse  than  slavery,  or  even  war. 
Infidelity  is  worse ;  anarchy  is  worse.  If  war  slays  its  thou- 
sands, one  week's  anarchy,  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  would 


PATRIOTIC  EDITORIALS.  153 

slay  its  myriads  and  its  millions.     The  Garrisonians  seek  to 
compass  the  triumph  of  both." 

Editorial  on  Garrison  Abolitionists  in  the  Glas- 
gow Christian  News,  1852 : 

"The  gentlemen  whom  I  refer  to  lire  men  of  peace.  They 
would  not  handle  daggers — no,  not  they!  They  would  not  han- 
dle them,  but  they  speak  them ;  they  write  them.  Like  the 
apocalyptic  monster,  they  have  horns  like  a  lamb,  but  they  speak 
like  a  dragon.  They  base  Abolitionism  on  directly  infidel  prin- 
ciples. They  propose  infidel  resolutions  at  public  meetings. 
They  do  their  utmost  to  identify  Christianity  and  slavery,  and 
to  inoculate  with  this  poison  every  fugitive  slave  who  comes  in 
their  way;  and  instead  of  contenting  themselves  with  striking  at 
slavery  through  whatever  churches  and  other  influences  they 
can,  without  questioning  their  motives  or  their  honest  desire  to 
see  slavery  abolished,  we  yet  venture  to  say  that  on  too  many 
occasions  they  seem  to  be  most  in  their  element  when  they  aim 
a  blow  through  slavery  at  the  very  heart  of  the  churches  and  of 
that  holy  religion  of  which,  with  all  their  faults,  the  American 
churches  are  the  shrines." 

Detroit  Free  Press,  November,  1853 : 

""What  sort  of  friends  to  the  slave  are  Garrison,  Abby  Kelly, 
or  the  other  kindred  spirits  that  congregate  at  Abolition  conven- 
tions? They  deem  it  a  humane  act  to  steal  negroes  from  their 
masters,  run  them  into  Canada,  and  there  leave  them  to  starve; 
but  so  actuated  by  '  principle  '  are  they  that  they  would  not  con- 
tribute a  dollar  to  purchase  all  the  slaves  in  Christendom.  And 
they  would  be  satisfied  with  no  plan  by  which  slavery  should  be 
gradually  abolished.  Immediate  abolition,  regardless  of  conse- 
quences, is  their  watchword,  or  no  abolition  at  all.  Impractica- 
ble on  every  subject,  their  influence  is  all  for  evil — in  no  respect 
for  good. 

"But  the  infidelity  of  this  sect,  their  attacks  upon  the  Chris- 
tian Church  and  the  Christian  religion,  their  assaults  upon  the 
Bible,  and  their  denial  of  God,  we  desire  to  hold  up  to  public  at- 
tention and  public  reprobation.  The  evil  is,  perhaps,  one  that 
7* 


154  THE  KANSAS   CRUSADE. 

will  best  cure  itself ;  but  right-thinking  men,  no  matter  what 
may  be  their  peculiar  opinions  in  regard  to  slavery,  should  dis" 
courage,  in  all  proper  ways,  the  propagation  of  doctrines  which 
so  inevitably  lead  to  infidelity." 

Boston  Bee,  May,  1853 : 

"A  VOICE  FROM  GARRISON. — William  Lloyd  Garrison  made 
a  speech  yesterday  at  the  Melodeon,  in  which  he  boasted  that  he 
stood  outside  the  Union;  and  furthermore  he  thanked  God  he 
was  not  recognized  as  a  Christian !  No  one  will  doubt  the  first 
part  of  his  remark,  and  the  only  regret  we  have,  in  common  with 
American  citizens  generally,  is  that  he  is  not  corporeally  out  of 
the  country.  As  to  the  latter  part  of  the  sentence,  we  may  say 
that  there  is  no  danger  of  as  black  an  infidel  as  there  is  in  the 
nation  being  taken  for  a  Christian.  Any  one  who  has  heard 
this  blasphemous  reviler  of  the  Church,  the  Bible,  and  religion 
for  the  past  fifteen  years  will  smile  at  his  Tom  Paine  sensitive- 
ness lest  he  be  regarded  for  what  the  decent  part  of  the  world 
respect  and  reverence." 

Milford  (N.  H.)  Republican  (Free -soil),  June, 
1858: 

"!N  FULL  BLAST.— The  real  Simon  Pure  Abolitionists  have 
been  in  convention  in  New  York.  Time  does  not  seem  to  tem- 
per their  zeal  with  discretion.  The  sentiments  expressed  were 
a  curious  mixture  of  rampant  antislavery  intolerance,  a  slight 
dash  of  common-sense,  with  any  amount  of  political  crotchets 
and  crudities,  treasonable  denunciations  of  the  Union,  which 
Wendell  Phillips  wished  to  send  to  the  devil,  and  frothy  ravings 
against  the  religious  institutions  of  the  country." 

Boston  Daily  Mail,  May,  1853 : 

"NEW  ENGLAND  ANTISLAVERY  CONVENTION. — There  seems 
no  present  or  prospective  amelioration  of  the  insanity  with, 
which  this  society  is  so  unhappily  afflicted,  and  which  has  ren- 
dered a  class  of  men  and  women  really  efficient  as  good  citi- 
zens, and  at  one  time  presenting  an  organization  commanding  at 
least  some  support,  to  the  unenviable  position  of  buffoons  to 


BOSTON  BEE.  155 

amuse  the  thoughtless  and  to  excite  the  pity  and  compassion  of 
sensible  men.  The  'New  England  Antislavery  Society,'  so  far 
as  influence  indicates  progress,  is  rapidly  retrograding,  and  in  a 
few  years  will  number  very  few  members  outside  of  the  insane 
asylums." 

Editorial  in  Boston  JBee,  May  26,  1853 : 

"Who  and  what  are  the  men  who  make  up  the  Abolition 
party?  We  are  sorry  to  say,  for  the  good  reputation  of  New 
England,  that  they  are  for  the  most  part  an  irresponsible,  shift- 
less, belligerent,  and  dangerous  sort  of  men.  We  refer  to  the 
leaders.  Take  Garrison,  the  filibuster,  who  is  a  fair  specimen 
of  one  of  its  two  wings,  Parker  Pillsbury,  the  blasphemer,  being 
a  sample  of  the  other.  Do  they  weigh  a  feather  in  the  commu- 
nity, outside  of  their  fanatical  hobby  ism?  Garrison  long  ago 
became  an  alien  in  this  community.  His  words  are  listened  to 
•with  the  same  ear,  and  are  given  as  much  or  as  little  heed  to,  as 
the  ravings  of  a  confirmed  maniac,  which  they  so  much  resem- 
ble  

"It  is  men  of  this  stamp  who  form  the  Abolition  party  of 
New  England — insane  destruction  ists  at  home,  destructively  in- 
sane abroad.  It  is  such  men  who  meet  at  the  Melodeon,  year 
after  year,  as  to-day,  to  concoct  new  schemes  of  moral  villany, 
hatch  up  new  ways  of  sedition,  and  then  strew  them  over  New 
England  and  such  other  Northern  States  as  it  is  safe  and  profita- 
ble to  visit.  .  .  .  What  has  Abolitionism  done  but  to  make  new 
chains  for  the  slave,  and  to  create  new  and  extreme  necessities 
for  the  master?  What  has  it  done  but  to  injure  the  slave,  and 
put  back  his  emancipation  an  indefinite  time?  What  has  it  ac- 
complished but  to  throw  blocks  in  the  way  of  progress — to  stay 
the  course  of  real  humanity?  Nothing.  .  .  .  Where  is  abolition 
going  ?  Plainly,  to  its  grave.  But  not  without  gnashings,  gasp- 
ings,  and  all  manner  of  deathly  struggles.  Its  proselytes  will 
not  easily  give  up  the  ghost  in  death,  any  more  than  they  have 
given  up  phantoms  while  living.  Life  is  tenacious  in  everything 
that  is  foul  and  monstrous.  It  will  be  so  here.  But  it  must 
come  to  it.  Its  doom  is  fixed.  It  dwindles  yearly.  Its  num- 
bers to-day  are  far  less  than  five  years  ago.  Men  of  sense,  who 
once  swelled  its  ranks,  hoping  to  do  some  good  to  the  slave,  long 


156  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ago  found  the  means  proposed  by  Abolitionism  as  entirely  with- 
out good  effect.  They  found  the  men  engaged  in  the  cause  to 
be  heartless  beyond  account,  and  as  unprincipled  and  selfish  and 
mercenary  as  they  were  heartless.  Hence  the  party  shrunk  into 
a  faction,  and  from  a  faction  into  a  shadow,  till  it  is  now  the 
disgust  and  disgrace  and  execration  of  the  wise  and  decent  of 
every  community." 

New  York  Herald  (editorial),  1853  : 

"  THE  ABOLITION  FANATICS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"From  the  proceedings  of  the  late  Abolition  Convention,  held 
in  Boston,  which  we  published  Monday,  our  readers  will  have 
discovered  the  desperate  straits  to  which  the  rabid  fanatics  of 
the  Lloyd  Garrison  school  have  been  driven.  Their  platform 
has  been  reduced  to  two  planks — hostility  to  Christianity  and 
the  Bible,  and  all  possible  assistance,  in  violation  of  the  laws,  to 
the  escape  of  fugitive  slaves. 

"But  to  such  rabid  excess  have  these  crazy  wretches  carried 
their  impotent  malignity,  that  they  have  tabooed  John  P.  Hale, 
because  he  was  charged  with  being  in  favor  of  the  erection  of  a 
monument  to  Henry  Clay.  They  denounce  Charles  Sumner  as 
being  too  amiable  among  the  slave-holders  of  the  United  States 
Senate;  and  they  repudiate  all  those  faithless  Abolitionists  who 
were  weak  enough  to  join  in  any  of  the  public  manifestations  of 
regret  for  the  death  of  Daniel  Webster.  More  than  this,  they 
have  determined  to  strike  at  the  very  root  of  the  evil.  They 
have  determined  to  abolish  the  churches  of  all  denominations, 
to  abolish  the  Bible,  to  abolish  the  principles  of  Christianity 
which  it  inculcates,  and  to  establish  a  new  code  of  morals  and 
religion,  which  shall  recognize  the  entire  enormities  of  slavery 
and  the  duty  of  all  men  and  all  women  of  the  North  to  rally  to 
the  extermination  of  it  by  fire  and  sword.  .  .  .  The  convention,  a 
sort  of  summing  up  of  the  various  Abolition  orgies  of  the  year, 
stands  adjourned  for  a  twelve-month.  It  is  manifest  they  are 
doing  a  losing  business.  Even  in  Massachusetts  such  miserable 
creatures  as  have  figured  for  a  dozen  years  past  at  these  Abolition 
conventicles  are  beginning  to  be  regarded,  at  least  in  the  aggre- 
gate, as  a  public  nuisance.  The  deluded  victims  of  Garrison  & 


THE  VIEWS  OF  PATRIOTS.  157 

Co.,  who  have  been  supplying  their  funds  from  year  to  year,  no 
doubt  suspect  at  last  that  it  does  not  pay,  at  the  price,  to  support 
such  fellows  for  nothing  in  exchange  but  windy,  filthy  speeches 
and  the  most  bold-faced  hypocrisy  and  humbug.  Let  their  sup- 
plies be  stopped  altogether,  and  let  them  go  to  some  honest  call- 
ing. We  trust  that  this  will  be  the  end  of  their  Abolition  trick- 
ery and  thimblerigging." 

New  York  Independent,  January  3, 1856  : 

"Of  the  converts  to  spiritualism,  almost  all  of  them  were  in- 
fidels, and  some  of  them,  like  Garrison,  of  the  most  degraded 
class." 

Keene  (N.  H.)  Sentinel,  March,  1846  (editorial) : 

"It  is  well  the  Garrison,  Phillips,  Foster,  and  Abby  Kelly  fa- 
natics can  have  but  little  or  no  influence  by  promulgating  the 
abominable  doctrines  that  the  American  Church  must  be  de- 
stroyed and  the  Union  dissolved!  It  has  been  the  doctrine  of 
the  Liberator  until  the  last  year,  that  slavery  in  the  South  would 
be  destroyed  by  the  influence  of  the  free  States.  .  .  .  Where  is 
the  philosophy  so  much  boasted  of  before  in  this  movement? 
They  seem  willing  that  slavery  shall  exist  now  and  in  all  com- 
ing time  at  the  South,  if  the  free  States  can  only  be  a  nation  by 
themselves.  This  movement  shows  a  heartlessness  to  us  unsur- 
passed by  no  pro-slavery  party  in  the  free  States.  Indeed,  we 
know  of  no  such  party." 

Lockport Daily  Courier,  January,  1846  (editorial): 

"It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  horrors  of  slavery  have  been 
vastly  increased,  and  the  area  of  its  domains  immeasurably  ex- 
tended, through  the  systematic  and  ill-advised  efforts  of  North- 
ern Abolitionists. 

"The  South,  aroused  by  the  efforts  of  the  North  to  wrest  from 
them  the  system  of  slavery,  planned  and  carried  through  the 
scheme  of  annexation.  For  this  extension  of  slavery  we  believe 
the  North  is  wholly  responsible.  It  was  a  slave  project,  planned 
and  consummated  because  of  the  belligerent  attitude  of  the  North 
towards  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  South;  and  the  North 
need  hope  for  no  better  success  in  the  future,  so  long  as  the 


158  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

same  course  is  pursued  towards  the  South.  We  are  not  plead- 
ing for  slavery.  We  hate  the  entire  system  as  thoroughly  and 
cordially  as  any  man  living;  and  hence  we  are  inclined  to  de- 
nounce what  experience  has  taught  is  calculated  to  retard  the 
progress  of  emancipation,  though  the  opposite  may  be  the  orig- 
inal intention.  Taunt  the  slave-holder,  and  the  stripes  of  the 
slave  will  pay  for  it;  but  tell  him  that  the  Northern  farmer,  with 
far  less  land  and  capital,  with  a  quarter  of  the  labor,  makes  twice 
as  much  money  every  five  years  as  the  planter  and  slave-holder, 
and  he  will  listen  to  you.  Publish  these  facts  among  the  people 
and  a  popular  feeling  will  be  aroused,  before  which  slavery  must 
wither  and  perish." 

Haverhill  (Mass.)  Gazette,  January,  1846  (edito- 
rial) : 

' '  Abolition  takes  the  same  course.  Reasonable  men  have  long 
been  aware  of  the  evils  of  slavery;  its  inconsistency  with  our 
highest  pretensions  to  being  the  friends  of  liberty,  and  its  total 
disregard  of  the  natural  rights  of  man.  A  new  impulse  was 
greatly  needed  to  impress  these  truths  more  forcibly  upon  the 
national  ear,  and  had  a  few  such  men  as  Channing  and  C.  M. 
Clay  arisen,  without  the  uttraists,  who  had  the  folly  to  suppose 
that  they  were  about  to  break  the  chains  of  three  million  of  bond- 
men by  noise  and  clamor,  declamation  and  denunciation,  there 
is  no  telling  what  immense  good  might  have  been  accomplished. 
But  when  the  lead  of  the  movement  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
men,  for  whose  insane  self-sufficiency  all  the  millions  of  slaves 
left  after  the  liberation  of  a  few  by  colonization  was  not  enough 
to  operate  upon — and  who  spent  more  breath  in  denouncing  all 
who  did  not  confide  in  their  omnipotence  and  assist  in  blowing 
their  bellows,  than  in  argument  against  slavery — and  the  tragic, 
comical  farce  was  ended  by  using  up  the  political  power  of  the 
party  to  assist  the  slave-holders  in  extending  the  '  area  of  slavery ' 
over  half  a  continent." 

New  York  Christian  Inquirer,  May,  1857  (edito- 
rial) : 

"The  Kansas  excitement  took  the  wind  out  of  their  sails,  by 
doing  their  business  better  than  they  could,  and  the  Supreme 


GARRISONISM  DENOUNCED.  159 

Court  has  finished  them.  Little  seems  left  of  a  set  of  admirable 
orators,  unsurpassed  debaters,  armed  at  all  points — magnificently 
unscrupulous,  sublimely  impudent,  gloriously  extravagant  men 
used  to  making  grand,  exciting  speeches  once  a  week,  year  in 
and  year  out — always  expected  to  stun  the  audience,  and  always 
fulfilling  the  expectations — but  now  out  of  business— and  prac- 
tising as  amateurs  at  their  old  calling.  As  the  soap-boiler,  on  quit- 
ting the  firm,  reserved  the  right  to  come  in  on  '  melting  days,' 
so  the  antislavery  gladiators  claim  the  privilege  of  occupying 
their  old  place  on  anniversary  week.  And  really  it  would  seri- 
ously detract  from  the  charms  and  even  the  uses  of  that  occasion, 
if  this  extraordinary  class  of  public  speakers  were  to  disappear. 
Practice  makes  perfect,  and  we  have  never  had  a  school  in  which 
all  the  excellencies  and  all  the  defects — all  that  should  be  copied 
and  all  that  should  be  shunned  in  popular  eloquence,  have  been 
so  perfectly  ripened.  The  windflowers  and  the  sunflowers — 
never* the  poppies — of  rhetoric  have  all  bloomed  in  utmost  per- 
fection on  the  Abolition  rod.  Argument  and  sophistry,  sense 
and  madness,  principles  and  personalities,  piety  and  profanity, 
noble  aspirations  and  grovelling  blasphemy,  all  have  found  their 
aptest  tongues  on  their  platforms." 

From  the  Eastern  (Me.)  Argus,  1852  (editorial) : 

"  As  to  the  Abolitionists  and  the  Abolition  philanthropy,  the 
latter  is  a  cheat  and  the  former  are  a  set  of  miserable  hypocrites. 
There  is  not  an  honest  man  among  them. .  . .  The  true  Abolition- 
ists are  the  descendants  of  the  Tories  of  the  Revolution  and  are 
themselves  always  found  on  the  side  of  their  country's  enemies. 
They  are  a  treacherous,  hypocritical,  ungenerous,  and  unchari- 
table set  of  fanatics,  deserving  only  the  contempt  of  their  neigh- 
bors, and  unworthy  the  good  opinion  of  all  who  value  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  their  country.  We  do  not  in  the  least  misrep- 
resent their  character.  How  unjust,  is  it  not,  to  hold  the  entire 
North  responsible  for  the  ravings  and  buffoonery  exhibited  by  a 
few  fools,  who  are  better  fitted  for  the  mad-house  than  they  are 
to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  sensible  citizens." 

Boston  Times,  August,  1854  (editorial): 

"  STABILITY  OP  THE  UNION. — Mr.  Garrison  is  such  an  ass  as  to 
believe  that  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  would  prove  beneficial  to 


100  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

the  slaves  of  the  South ;  and  so  he  fires  away  at  the  Union  with  all 
his  might  and  strength — and  with  just  about  as  much  effect  as 
King  Canute's  commands  had  on  the  advancing  tide.  His  labors 
have  ceased  to  excite  any  feelings  whatever.  Neither  indignation, 
nor  wonder,  nor  laughter  is  born  of  them.  Men  take  them  as  they 
take  any  other  nuisance  that  is  unavoidable  under  the  conditions 
of  existence;  as  they  take  hot  weather,  the  prevalence  of  cholera, 
short  crops,  or  any  other  similar  visitation.  This  has  been  their 
conduct  for  years  past,  and  the  best  effects  have  followed  from 
it.  Had  they  acted  differently — and  had  Mr.  Garrison's  longings 
for  persecution  and  martyrdom  been  gratified — had  his  office 
been  torn  down,  his  press  destroyed  and  his  person  maltreated — 
had  scoundrel  judges,  as  beneath  Jeffries  in  principle  as  above 
him  in  meanness,  been  allowed  to  twist  and  pervert  the  law  and 
cause  timid  jurymen  to  convict  him  against  both  law  and  justice, 
half  the  population  of  the  free  States  would  long  since  ha.ve  be- 
come abolitionized,  and  the  Union,  perhaps,  have  been  in  much 
danger.  But  these  things  have  not  been  done.  Mr.  Garrison 
has  been  allowed  to  roar  and  rave  and  madden  round  the  land, 
and  to  curse  the  Union  and  burn  copies  of  the  Constitution  as 
much  and  as  often  as  it  has  suited  him  to  do  so,  without  inter- 
ference from  any  quarter;  and  what  has  resulted  from  all  his 
sayings  and  doings?  Is  the  Union  less  strong,  less  beloved,  less 
dear  to  the  people  than  it  was  when  he  commenced  his  labors? 
By  no  means.  Is  the  Constitution  less  respected  because  the 
same  gentleman  has  on  several  occasions  served  it  as  Queen 
Mary  served  poor  John  Rogers,  in  spite  of  claims  to  mercy 
founded  on  a  fruitful  wife  and  a  dozen  children?  Not  at  all. 
Mr.  Garrison  has  been  reduced  to  utter  insignificance  because 
people  have  had  the  sense  not  to  convert  him  into  a  hero,  a 
martyr,  and  a  saint,  the  usual  process  by  which  gentlemen  of 
his  class  arrive  at  the  honors  of  canonization." 

Horace  Greeley,  in  "  The  Great  American  Con- 
flict," vol.  i.,  page  117,  confirms  the  preceding  views 
as  follows : 

"There  was  a  large  and  steadily  increasing  class  who,  though 
decidedly  antislavery,  refused  either  to  withhold  their  votes  or 
to  throw  them  away  on  candidates  whose  election  was  impos- 


GREELEY'S  CRITICISM.  161 

sible,  but  persisted  in  voting  at  nearly  every  election,  so  as  to 
effect  good  and  prevent  evil  to  the  extent  of  their  power.  .  .  . 

"  Thousands,  whose  consciences  and  hearts  would  naturally 
have  drawn  them  to  the  side  of  humanity  and  justice,  were  re- 
pelled by  vociferous  representations  that  to  do  so  would  iden- 
tify them  with  the  'disunion'  of  Wendell  Phillips,  the  'radi- 
calism '  of  Henry  C.  Wright,  and  the  '  infidelity '  of  Pillsbury, 
Parker,  and  Garrison." 

Denounced  in  the  bitterest  terms  by  all  the  lead- 
ing journals  in  the  country,  "  detested,  shunn'd  by 
saint  an'  sinner,"  these  Garrison  disunionists  did 
nothing  but  harm  during  the  entire  period  of  their 
spiteful  work.  They  greatly  increased  the  burdens 
of  the  slaves,  and  hindered  the  expression  of  anti- 
slavenr  sentiment  in  the  North.  Next  to  a  State 
prison  uniform,  politicians  dreaded  "the  taint  of 
Garrisonism."  Hated  everywhere  in  the  North  as 
much  as  in  the  South,  they  had  no  following  but 
of  cranks  and  monomaniacs  like  themselves. 

More  humiliating,  however,  than  all  the  criticisms 
of  others  are  their  own  confessions  that  all  their 
work  and  Avorry  of  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury were  an  absolute  failure.  Here  is  the  confes- 
sion of  Wendell  Phillips,  made  twenty-seven  years 
after  the  founding  of  the  Liberator. 

Evening  Traveller,  May  28, 1857 : 

"REPORT  OF  THE  N.  E.  A.  A.  S.  CONVENTION  IN  BOSTON. — 
Wendell  Phillips  declared  the  Tract  Society  an  organization  not 
worthy  the  support  of  antislavery  men.  .  .  .  Mr.  Phillips  said 
that  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Cheever,  and  the  Republican  Party 
were  most  dangerous  to  the  Abolition  cause,  which  was  pitted 
against  the  Government,  the  pulpit,  and  the  institutions  which 
held  men  iu  bondage,  body  and  soul.  So  far  as  government 
was  concerned,  the  Abolition  cause  up  to  this  time  has  been  a 


162  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

failure.  Slavery  has  put  down  its  foot  and  kept  it  there,  and 
led  you  on,  year  after  year,  from  victory  to  victory.  .  .  .  One  by 
one  the  institutions  of  the  country  have  gone  over  to  the  slave 
power — the  Missionary  Society,  the  Tract  Society,  the  '  South 
Side  Adamses' — and  we  are  left  alone." 

"William  Lloyd  Garrison  said,  in  the  R.  I.  A.  A.  S. 
Convention,  May  2,  1856  (see  Liberator,  May  2, 
1856) : 

"  There  is  no  hope  for  Kansas;  for  what  can  be  done  against 
the  Government?  The  real  antislavery  strength  of  the  North  is 
comparatively  weak.  The  Government  has  little  to  fear  in  this 
quarter." 

Numerous  other  confessions  by  the  same  authors, 
and  of  like  character,  could  be  furnished  from  the 
files  of  the  Liberator,  but  the  most  graphic  and 
conclusive  of  all  is  that  of  Theodore  Parker,  al- 
ready recorded  in  a  former  chapter.  In  intellect- 
ual power,  in  breadth  of  view,  and  in  logical  argu- 
ment, Mr.  Parker  had  no  rival  among  the  radical 
Abolitionists. 

During  all  this  quarter  of  a  century  of  futile 
Abolition  effort,  slavery  had  steadily  advanced, 
without  effective  opposition.  The  Northern  States 
were  waiting  for  some  method  of  decisive  action 
against  the  great  evil  that  would  not  endanger  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union.  They  were  loyal  to 
the  Government  and  hostile  to  Garrison's  methods. 
To  unite  these  States  in  active,  earnest,  and  effect- 
ive opposition  to  slavery  was  a  work  far  beyond 
'  the  power  of  the  Garrisonites. 

They  had  united  the  North  against  themselves — 
never  against  slavery.  By  denouncing  all  that  the 


HOW  TO  BE  AN  ANARCHIST.  163 

people  cherished,  they  became  what  the  people 
hated.  To  sow  the  wind  and  reap  the  whirlwind 
was  their  pleasing  occupation.  "  To  be  a  good 
Garrisonian,"  said  Mr.  Greeley,  "a  man  must  be 
mobbed  twice  a  year — once  in  ISTew  York,  and  once 
in  Boston."  To  prove  themselves  worthy  of  their 
name,  they  seemed  to  make  great  efforts  to  secure 
this  distinction.  Sometimes  they  succeeded.  To- 
day the  same  class  of  men  would  attain  their  ob- 
ject much  more  readily.  "We  know  now  the  cost 
and  the  value  of  the  Union,  and  might  not  listen 
so  quietly  as  we  did  before  the  Civil  War  to  in- 
sulting demands  for  its  dissolution. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   PROGRESS   OF   THE   CKUSADE. 

HAVING  in  the  last  four  chapters  done  simple 
justice,  both  to  the  helping  and  hindering  agencies 
in  making  Kansas  free,  I  return  to  the  history  of 
our  progress  in  the  Crusade,  and  of  our  continued 
success,  soon  to  culminate  in  the  full  attainment  of 
our  objects — freedom  victorious  and  slavery  van- 
quished. 

Returning  from  Buffalo  by  way  of  New  York 
City,  I  organized  there  an  Emigrant  Aid  Company 
consisting  of  the  following  corporators  and  others : 

Charles  King,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  William  C. 
Russell,  Jonathan  J.  Coddington,  Rensselaer  N. 
Havens,  Cyrus  Curtis,  Samuel  Leeds,  Jr.,  Charles 
W.  Elliot,  and  Fanning  C.  Tucker,  of  New  York ; 
and  John  Hooker,  Stephen  W.  Kellogg,  John  Boyd, 
"William  II.  Russell,  Charles  L.  English,  Timothy 
D  wight,  Charles  B.  Lines,  Julius  Pratt,  and  Charles 
Ives,  of  Connecticut. 

R.  N.  Havens  was  chosen  actuary. 

As  the  New  York  Legislature  was  not  in  session, 
a  charter  for  this  company  was  procured  from  the 
Legislature  of  Connecticut.  Having  perfected  this 
organization,  I  returned  to  Massachusetts  to  raise 
the  second  colony.  Though  this  was  three  times 


SECOND  COLONY.  165 

as  large  as  the  first,  it  was  gathered  with  much  less 
effort.  It  left  Boston  in  August,  and  in  September 
joined  the  first  colony  in  Lawrence,  now  settled  in 
their  rude  homes. 

"  The  second  band  of  emigrants  (sixty  six  in  number)  for  Kan- 
sas left  Boston  on  Tuesday  afternoon,  and  were  joined  at  differ- 
ent places  by  other  parties,  so  that  at  Albany  the  company  num- 
bered one  hundred  and  fifty  or  more.  Previous  to  starting  from 
the  city,  the  emigrants  assembled  in  the  Lincoln  Street  depot, 
and  sang  the  song  by  Whittier,  beginning: 

"  '  We  cross  the  prairies,  as  of  old 
The  Pilgrims  crossed  the  sea, 
To  make  the  West,  as  they  the  East, 
The  homestead  of  the  Free.' 

"They  also  sang  the  original  hymn,  beginning: 

"  '  From  Eastern  hill  and  valley, 

From  Ocean's  distant  shore, 
We  come  with  hearts  rejoicing, 

And  on  by  thousands  pour. 
'Tis  Freedom  calls  us  hither, 

For  Freedom's  sake  we  roam ; 
'Mid  Western  wilds,  in  Freedom's  cause, 

We'll  make  our  happy  home.'  " 

There  was  an  immense  gathering  at  the  station, 
who  gave  the  emigrants  cheer  upon  cheer  as  they 
began  their  Western  pilgrimage. 

Two  of  the  company's  agents — Charles  Eobinson 
and  Samuel  C.  Pomeroy — had  charge  of  this  colony 
during  its  long  Westward  journey.  All  the  way 
from  Boston  to  St.  Louis  they  received  most  enthu- 
siastic ovations,  proving  beyond  question  the  in- 
tense interest  of  the  Northern  people  in  this  grand 
crusade  for  freedom.  This  is  well  shown  by  the 
following  editorial  in  the  Albany  Evening  Journal 
of  August  30th,  written  by  Thurlow  Weed : 


166  THE    KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"The  second  Kansas  party  from  Massachusetts  (with  twenty- 
live  from  New  York)  reached  this  city  last  night  about  eleven 
o'clock.  They  were  three  hundred  strong. 

"New  England,  which  has  given  millions  of  her  sons  and 
daughters  to  the  great  West,  never  sent  out  a  more  sturdy  set  of 
men,  nor  one  having  a  more  holy  mission.  They  will  place  their 
mark  upon  the  political,  intellectual,  and  social  character  of  Kan- 
sas. Involuntary  servitude  can  find  no  resting-place  where  such 
men  rule.  And  that  they  and  others  like  them  will  rule  Kansas 
is  becoming  every  day  more  and  more  apparent.  ...  It  was  very 
gratifying  to  witness  the  interest  felt  by  a  large  number  of  our 
citizens  on  the  arrival  of  these  three  hundred  freemen.  A  meet- 
ing had  been  called  early  in  the  evening  to  make  arrangements 
for  their  reception,  and  a  large  crowd  remained  till  half-past 
eleven  o'clock  to  bid  them  welcome. 

"The  interview  was  deeply  interesting  and  impressive.  The 
'purpose  of  their  mission,  and  the  gratifying  enthusiasm  with 
which  they  have  entered  upon  it,  could  not  fail  to  awaken  emo- 
tions which  found  expression  in  befitting  congratulations.  The 
meeting — held  in  the  large  parlors  of  the  Delavan  House — was 
continued  till  after  midnight.  We  have  seldom  witnessed  a 
more  interesting  reunion,  or  one  better  calculated  to  awaken  the 
zeal  of  the  patriot.  There  was  real  sublimity  in  the  spectacle 
presented  by  these  three  hundred  men,  leaving  their  old  New 
England  homes  for  the  far  West,  in  order  to  rescue  a  vast  Ter- 
ritory from  the  sin  and  curse  of  slavery.  Never  was  there  a 
more  holy  crusade,  or  one  pregnant  with  more  glorious  results. 
All  honor  to  the  noble  men  who  have  given  their  hands  aiid 
their  hearts  to  the  noble  work." 

This  article  also  proves  how  powerful  an  aid  in 
saving  Kansas  was  the  Northern  press,  of  which  I 
shall  soon  have  more  to  say.  It  was  widely  quoted 
and  had  much  influence.  It  created  faith,  inspired 
courage,  and  stimulated  action. 

Editorials  similar  in  patriotic  zeal  to  Mr.  Weed's 
were  published  in  all  the  cities  and  large  towns 
through  which  our  colonies  passed.  All  ovations 


OVATIONS— ENTHUSIASM.  167 

given  by  crowds  of  patriots  everywhere  on  the 
route  were  faithfully  recorded.  During  the  Kan- 
sas crusade  volumes  of  such  stirring  narrations  and 
appeals  were  made  by  the  patriotic  press.  As  space 
will  not  allow  me  to  quote  them  here,  Mr.  Weed's 
must  be  taken  as  a  representative  of  all. 

Let  us  here  observe  the  progress  in  our  work  al- 
ready made,  and  the  new  agencies  enlisted  to  assist 
in  carrying  it  forward  to  victory. 

There  was  great  enthusiasm  everywhere  aroused 
by  the  simple  fact  that  two  colonies  had  already 
gone  to  the  disputed  Territory.  People  were  now 
everywhere  convinced  that  the  method  of  this  com- 
pany was  to  be  action  against  slavery,  and  not  res- 
olution-making— to  be  work,  and  not  talk.  The 
great  mass  of  the  Northern  patriots  had  been  wait- 
ing for  many  years  for  some  practical  demonstration 
of  this  kind.  Our  company  was  conservative  and 
laAV-abiding.  We  contemplated  no  violence,  unless 
to  repel  violence.  We  were  all  for  the  Union  and 
the  Constitution.  Standing  upon  such  impregna- 
ble ground,  the  patriots  of  all  parties  began  to  com- 
bine in  our  support.  They  were  ready  for  action. 
For  thirty-five  years  a  few  politicians  had  been  fir- 
ing off  resolutions  against  the  extension  of  slavery, 
while  a  sentimental  cabal  had  also  fired  off  their 
resolutions  against  its  existence.  These  paper  pel- 
lets produced  no  more  effect  upon  the  castellated 
bastions  of  the  "  Black  Power  "  than  cannon-wads, 
without  shot,  would  have  had  upon  an  adamantine 
fortress.  Here  was  something  quite  unlike  pictures 
of  auction-blocks  and  manacles.  Here  was  some- 


168  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

thing  quite  unlike  raving  appeals  in  antislavery  ba- 
zaars, and  sickly  resolutions  against  the  Union,  the 
clergy,  and  the  churches. 

These  pioneers  had  nothing  to  say  about  "the 
iniquity  of  slavery,"  or  the  "  sin  of  its  extension  "; 
but  they  had  determined,  without  any  words  or 
resolutions,  to  show  their  purpose  by  their  action. 
"With  grim  defiance  in  their  hearts,  they  went  to 
make  their  own  bodies  a  barrier  against  any  further 
domination  of  the  slave  power.  Where  in  history 
can  be  found  the  record  of  moral  grandeur  surpass- 
ing this  ?  "Where  any  to  equal  it  ?  The  records  of 
the  human  race  furnish  no  such  examples  of  prin- 
ciple or  patriotism.  All  other  migrations  were  as 
inferior  to  this  as  men  are  inferior  to  angels. 

But  it  was  not  alone  what  our  brave  colonies  had 
done  in  thus  giving  all  they  had  and  all  they  were 
to  freedom,  but  also  their  power,  by  their  letters  to 
their  friends  in  their  old  homes,  to  extend  the  in- 
fluence of  this  great  movement.  Fortunately,  near- 
ly all  these  colonists  were  ready  writers.  Many  of 
them  were  liberally  educated.  No  sooner  had  they 
constructed  their  rude  cabins  than  their  letters  be- 
gan to  be  forwarded  to  the  East.  In  these  every 
incident  of  pioneer  life  was  faithfully  pictured  from 
day  to  day ;  the  great  natural  advantages  of  the 
country  forcibly  presented,  and  their  own  deter- 
mination to  see  Kansas  a  free  State  and  slavery  cir- 
cumscribed, written  down  with  such  evident  will 
and  vigor  that  whoever  read  was  at  once  inspired 
with  zeal.  But  the  result  of  these  letters,  "  thick 


LETTERS  OF  THE  PIONEERS.  169 

as  leaves  in  Yallombrosa,"  was  something  infinitely 
better  than  zeal ;  it  was  action.  If  one  letter  was 
sent  to  a  town,  copies  of  it  were  made  and  every 
citizen  had  a  chance  to  read  it.  Young  and  spirited 
men  volunteered  to  go  and  share  with  their  brave 
comrades  the  duties  and  the  dangers  of  this  new 
way  of  fighting  slavery.  For  three  or  four  months 
my  own  voice  had  been  the  only  one  urging  this 
action.  Now  at  least  two  hundred  pens,  all  in 
awful  earnest,  reinforced  my  arguments.  But  this 
number  of  coworkers  was  to  go  on  increasing  with 
great  and  greater  rapidity,  as  it  did  to  the  very  end 
of  the  great  conflict. 

Here  is  one  incident  to  show  how  these  letters 
united  all  parties  in  the  North  in  the  cause  of  free 
Kansas.  In  the  spring  of  1855  I  went  to  speak  in 
a  little  town  in  New  Hampshire.  Arriving  at  the 
hotel  two  or  three  hours  before  the  time  of  the 
evening  meeting,  I  left  my  satchel  at  the  house, 
but  did  not  put  down  my  name,  as  I  wished  to  go 
about  the  village  and  observe  without  being  ob- 
served. The  post-office  was  in  the  village  store. 
Letters  were  displayed  in  the  window  so  that  the 
addresses  could  be  read  in  the  street.  I  observed 
there  a  letter  postmarked  with  a  pen,  "  Lawrence, 
K.  T."  The  people  going  by  soon  discovered  it  and 
gave  a  boy  a  few  cents  to  go  and  bring  the  man  to 
whom  it  was  addressed.  Meanwhile  the  waiting 
number  was  increasing.  Soon  came  the  owner  of 
the  letter  and  opened  it.  The  clamor  was,  "  Read 
it  aloud."  This  he  did ;  but  when  he  had  finished, 
others  had  come  who  had  not  heard  the  first  part 
8 


170  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  it.  It  was  read  in  this  way  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  time.  Then  one  of  the  young  men  re- 
quested and  obtained  a  copy  for  the  county  paper. 
The  result  was  that  the  letter  of  my  helper  in  Law- 
rence was  probably  read  by  almost  every  one  in 
that  county.  Who  can  ever  tell  the  influence  of 
that  single  letter  ?  But  already  we  had,  so  early 
in  the  movement,  two  hundred  such  letter-writers 
in  Lawrence.  That  was  already  a  power;  but 
what  a  force  would  twenty  thousand  such  writers 
be,  when  within  a  few  months  they  would  begin  to 
wield  their  pens,  and,  if  need  be,  their  swords  also, 
for  free  Kansas ! 

In  the  evening  we  had  the  church  full  of  people 
to  listen  to  my  appeals  for  pioneers.  The  letter, 
four  times  read  at  the  store,  was  again  read  at  the 
meeting.  After  the  meeting,  a  dozen  or  more  went 
with  me  to  the  hotel  and  stayed  three  hours  to  talk 
about  the  prospects  of  "  the  battle-ground  of  free- 
dom." Several  young  men  went  from  that  town 
to  Springfield.  Massachusetts,  to  join  the  next  colo- 
ny. In  our  conversation  at  the  hotel  I  asked  the 
gathering  about  me,  What  are  your  politics  ?  Are 
you  Whigs,  Democrats,  or  Free-soilers  ?  "  We  have 
no  such  party  feelings  now ;  but  we  are  all  for  Kan- 
sas a  free  State.  That  is  our  party,  and  the  fight 
in  Kansas  for  freedom  is  our  fight."  This  grand 
crusade  in  this  way  obliterated  the  old  party  lines 
and  made  in  a  short  time  the  Republican  party, 
and  also  made  that  party  the  controlling  power  of 
the  nation. 

To  some  of  my  readers  the  above  claim  may  seem 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  PRESS.  171 

an  unwarrantable  assumption.  It  has  not  yet  been 
recognized  by  our  historians.  A  careful  study,  how- 
ever, of  the  events  in  this  crusade  and  conflict  will 
find  it  sustained  by  abundant  proof. 

But  another  important  agency  had  now  come  to 
the  rescue  of  freedom — the  press  of  the  free  States, 
secular  and  religious,  and  of  all  political  parties. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  movement  we  had  the 
aid  of  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  and  the  Chris- 
tian Register.  Each  of  these  papers  was  always 
waiting  for  something  from  the  ready  pen  of  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale.  He  used  their  columns  often, 
and  always  for  the  promotion  of  freedom  in  Kan- 
sas. Samuel  Bowles — the  ablest  journalist  in  New 
England — Thurlow  Weed  in  the  Albany  Evening 
Journal,  Horace  Greeley  (as  shown  in  the  preced- 
ing pages),  and  William  Cullen  Bryant  sustained 
the  movement  of  organized  emigration  with  great 
energy  and  eloquence.  But  these  are  examples 
only.  The  thousands  of  journals,  all  through  the 
free  States,  were  almost  without  exception  active 
and  powerful  agencies  in  making  Kansas  free.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  over-estimate  their  power. 
The  clergy  and  the  churches  were,  as  I  have  shown, 
faithful  and  efficient  allies  in  the  great  cause,  but 
certainly  not  more  important  than  the  press. 

In  the  first  place,  the  press  gave  to  the  country 
the  Plan  of  Freedom,  as  presented  in  the  charter 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company.  Next  it  reported 
all  action  taken  under  the  charter  and  the  plan  of 
operations.  Then  the  fact  that  a  colony  was  being 
raised.  Then  the  fact  that  the  first  colony  had  act- 


172  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ually  gone — with  full  accounts  of  all  the  ovations 
along  the  journey.  Not  only  did  the  press  report 
all  my  speeches  made  in  the  cities,  and  furnish 
strong  editorials  sustaining  the  methods  of  the 
company,  but  it  published  everywhere  the  very  nu- 
merous letters  of  our  pioneers  in  Kansas.  While 
my  voice  might  reach  a  few  hundred,  or  at  most 
a  few  thousand,  in  a  day,  the  voice  of  the  press 
reached  millions.  The  leading  journals  soon  had 
their  correspondents  in  Kansas,  and  there  was  hard- 
ly an  issue  of  any  paper  during  the  contest  that  did 
not  give  its  readers  the  latest  news  about  the  great 
conflict  between  the  two  antagonistic  civilizations. 
This  faithful  and  patriotic  work  of  our  Northern 
journals  was  a  powerful,  if  not  an  indispensable, 
agency  in  determining  the  result  of  the  controversy. 

After  our  first  two  colonies  had  settled  in  Law- 
rence, and  the  facts  and  all  the  incidents  of  their 
journey  and  location  had  been  made  known  by 
the  press  to  all  the  people  of  the  North,  the  tide 
of  migration  to  that  disputed  land  was  rapid- 
ly increased.  Kansas  Leagues  and  Kansas  Aid 
Committees  became  numerous  in  nearly  all  of  the 
Northern  States. 

In  many  places  contributions  were  made  to  fa- 
cilitate this  movement.  One  of  the  most  effective 
of  these  committees  was  the  New  York  Kansas  Aid 
Committee  of  Albany,  N.Y.  To  show  the  energy 
and  activity  of  this  organization,  I  here  quote  from 
a  letter  of  Judge  Seth  B.  Cole,  recently  received : 

"In  the  fall  of  1854  I  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  from  my 
native  county — Steuben.  After  January  1, 1855, 1  was  in  Albany. 


THE  ALBANY  COMMITTEE.  173 

I  heard  you  deliver  three  addresses  in  that  city  on  Kansas,  and 
knew  the  deep  interest  awakened  by  them.  In  April,  1855,  a 
mass  meeting  was  held  in  Albany,  at  which  William  H.  Seward 
presided,  to  consider  the  Kansas  question.  It  directed  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  by  the  chairman  of  the  meeting,  to  be 
called  the  Kansas  Aid  Committee.  There  were  eight  members  of 
that  committee.  I  was  one.  Hon.  William  Barnes  was  secretary 
and  custodian  of  the  records.  He  was  most  faithful  and  efficient. 
"After  the  adjournment  of  the  Legislature  I  continued  in  Al- 
bany some  time,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Kansas  Aid  Com- 
mittee travelled  and  made  appeals  to  the  people  in  different  parts 
of  the  State,  and  organized  local  societies  to  aid  the  Kansas 
cause  and  to  influence  emigration  to  Kansas.  As  a  result,  I  af- 
terwards learned  that  some  forty-two  thousand  dollars  were  re- 
ceived by  the  State  committee  at  Albany,  and  all  expended  to 
aid  emigration  to  Kansas.  My  services  were  gratuitous." 

The  president  of  this  committee  was  Hon.  Brad- 
ford R.  Wood ;  and  after  him  Hon.  Henry  H.  Van 
Dyck ;  treasurer,  Hon.  Chauncey  P.  "Williams ;  sec- 
retary, Hon.  "William  Barnes. 

The  entire  amount  collected  and  disbursed  seems 
to  have  been  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
No  Kansas  committee  was  more  effective. 

The  following  letters  to  Hon.  "William  Barnes, 
secretary,  show  how  I  regarded  this  organization 
in  1856 : 

"  ABTOR  HOUSK,  N.  Y.  CITY,  March  4, 1856. 
"Mr.  Barnes: 

"DEAR  SIR, — I  am  now  about  to  leave  this  place  and  solicit 
subscriptions  to  the  stock  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  in  the 
interior  cities.  I  shall  speak  in  Brattleboro  next  Monday  even- 
ing and  then  go  westward. 

"  Can  the  people  of  Albany  be  induced  to  do  something  to  send 
peaceful  colonies  to  Kansas,  well  armed?    If  you  think  they  can, 
I  should  like  to  address  them  some  evening  next  week. 
"Truly  yours, 

"En  TIIAYER." 


174  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"  WORCESTER,  July  26, 1856. 

' '  Mr.  Barnes  : 

"DEAR  SIB, — I  send  you  by  mail  one  of  the  books  prepared 
for  school  district  solicitors.  Worcester  County  has  six  hundred 
districts,  and  employs  the  same  number  of  men  and  women  solic- 
iting aid  for  Kansas. 

"  By  the  same  plan  Massachusetts  would  employ  six  thousand 
solicitors,  all  at  work  for  the  cause  and  without  pay.  One  or  two 
days  each  would  suffice  to  do  the  work.  You  will  see,  therefore, 
that  the  plan  combines  economy,  despatch,  and  efficiency. 

"We  do  not  rely  on  large  subscriptions,  but  upon  the  dimes 
and  dollars  of  the  million. 

"We  do  not  wait  for  meetings.  We  will  encourage  them,  but 
cannot  afford  the  time  to  make  them  a  part  of  the  plan. 

"Almost  every  one  is  ready  to  do  something  without  a  lecture, 

and  that  something  we  want  now. 

******* 

"I  send  you  an  application  from  a  young  man  in  Amherst 
College  for  a  chance  to  work  in  your  State.  I  refer  the  whole 

subject  to  your  State  board. 

"  Very  truly  3Tour9, 

'  ELI  THAYER. 

"P.  S. — The  solicitor  books  are  prepared  by  the  county  com- 
mittees and  sent  to  the  town  agent  whom  they  appoint.  The 
town  agent  appoints  the  solicitor  in  each  district  of  his  town, 
and  gives  him  or  her  a  book.  I  think  it  best  to  make  ladies  the 
solicitors,  as  they  can  accomplish  more  for  Kansas  than  the  men. 

"E.  T." 

"  WOEOESTEB,  August  1, 1856. 

" Mr.  Barnes: 

"  DEAR  SIR, —  .  .  .  You  have  the  plan  which  I  proposed  to  ap- 
ply. Improve  it  if  you  can,  but  allow  no  delay.  You  must 
have  an  assistant  secretary  at  once,  and  I  hope  you  will  procure 
a  good  man  who  will  relieve  you  at  least  from  the  labor  of  writ- 
ing, and  perhaps  of  dictating  details. 

"  I  need  say  nothing  to  you  of  the  importance  of  carrying  this 
cause  to  every  hearth-stone  in  the  free  States.  I  am  happy  in 
the  conviction  that  you  appreciate  the  cause  of  Kansas  in  its 
fullest  extent,  and  therefore  I  propose  to  leave  New  York  to 
you  and  your  excellent  committee.  My  time  will  now  be  given 


THE  WORCESTER  LEAGUE.  175 

to  the  States  which  have  not  yet  any  State  committees;  first  in 
New  Eugland  and  the  West,  and  afterwards  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey. 

"  We  hope  to  have  State  committees  in  New  England  in  each 
State,  in  ten  days,  and  then  without  delay  a  perfect  organization. 

"If  your  committee  has  power  to  add  to  its  members,  I  think 
you  will  do  well  to  add  one  man  from  the  shire  town  of  each 
county,  retaining  your  present  quorum. 

"  This  will  facilitate  the  organizing  of  counties. 

"Tell  the  Republicans  this  is  the  way  to  elect  Fremont,  and 
all  the  clubs  must  work  for  us. 

"  Truly  yours, 

"ELI  THAYER." 

Among  the  most  efficient  Kansas  Leagues  was 
the  one  in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  of  which  Al- 
exander H.  Bullock  was  president,  and  William  T. 
Merrifield,  vice-president.  The  following  is  an  ex- 
tract from  Mr.  Merrifield's  reminiscences,  published 
in  the  Worcester  Spy,  in  1887 : 

"The  recent  discussion  of  the  Kansas  emigration  question  of 
thirty  years  ago  has  brought  to  light  an  interesting  reminiscence 
related  by  Mr.  Win.  T.  Merrifleld.  In  an  interview  with  that 
gentleman  yesterday,  he  stated  to  a  Spy  representative  that 
while  travelling  through  the  South  in  January,  1856,  he  stopped 
at  the  leading  hotel  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  and  the  day  he  arrived 
there  General  Buford  made  a  speech  in  the  Legislature,  in  which 
he  said  he  would  pledge  himself  to  the  amount  of  half  his  fort- 
une for  the  raising  of  a  company  to  go  to  Kansas  and  drive  out 
the  free-State  settlers  and  establish  slavery  in  that  Territory. 
This  statement  Mr.  Merrifield  got  from  members  of  the  Legislat- 
ure stopping  at  the  hotel  who  had  heard  Buford's  speech.  Be- 
fore he  left,  General  Buford  had  raised  half  of  all  the  recruits 
he  wanted  to  march  into  Kansas  and  drive  out  the  free-State 
men  and  force  slavery  there.  Mr.  Merrifield  came  home  imme- 
diately, fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that  we  ought  to  protect 
our  men  from  this  section  and  send  men  enough  there  to  coun- 
teract the  designs  of  the  pro-slavery  raiders.  He  was  thoroughly 


176  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

convinced,  from  what  he  had  seen,  that  we  could  and  ought  to  do 
it.  Having  in  his  mind  the  suggestion  of  steps  to  be  taken,  the 
next  morning,  after  he  arrived  home,  the  first  man  he  met  on 
the  street  was  Mr.  Eli  Thayer,  on  the  steps  of  the  old  post-office 
building,  the  Central  Exchange.  He  then  stated  to  Mr.  Thayer 
what  was  being  done  by  General  Buf  ord,  and  told  him  he  thought 
it  was  a  perfectly  plain  duty  to  send  men  enough  to  Kansas  to 
protect  the  free-State  men  there  and  frustrate  Buford's  designs, 
but  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  raise  money  to  pay  expenses, 
furnish  food  and  equipments.  At  that  moment  it  was  arranged 
between  him  and  Mr.  Thayer  to  take  the  necessary  steps  to  have 
the  thing  done,  and  Mr.  Thayer  started  right  off  to  Boston  and 
came  back  the  same  day  and  reported  to  him  the  result  of  his 
mission,  that  funds  could  be  obtained  in  Boston  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  men  to  Kansas.  A  meeting  was  immediately  called, 
to  be  held  in  Worcester,  which  took  place  Saturday  evening, 
Feb.  9, 1856,  at  the  City  Hall,  in  response  to  the  call,  asking  '  the 
friends  of  freedom  and  free  institutions  to  assemble  and  take 
such  action  as  might  be  deemed  advisable  to  strengthen  the 
hearts  and  hands  of  those  who  are  upholding  the  cause  of  free- 
dom in  Kansas.'  This  was  the  first  public  meeting  for  aid  for 
Kansas  held  in  this  city.  Hon.  P.  Emory  Aldrich  presided,  and 
the  late  Harrison  Bliss  was  secretary.  After  a  speech  from  Gen. 
S.  C.  Pomeroy,  Mr.  Thayer  spoke,  and  the  result,  according  to 
the  published  report  of  the  meeting,  was  that  '  before  the  audi- 
ence left  the  hall  twenty-three  rifles,  equivalent  to  the  sum  of 
$575,  were  subscribed  for,'  by  different  gentlemen,  Mr.  Thayer 
having  proposed  to  '  pay  for  ten  Sharp's  rifles  at  $25  each,  on 
condition  that  during  the  coming  week  other  citizens  of  Worces- 
ter would  subscribe  enough  to  make  up  the  number  to  one  hun- 
dred.' A  committee  of  three  was  then  appointed  to  solicit  sub- 
scriptions for  the  requisite  number." 

One  hundred  and  sixty-five  men  were  raised  to 
oppose  Buford;  each  with  a  Sharp's  rifle  and  a 
plenty  of  ammunition.  All  were  put  in  charge  of 
Dr.  Calvin  Cutter.  At  two  subsequent  meetings 
more  than  fifteen  thousand  dollars  were  subscribed 
in  aid  of  the  Kansas  crusade. 


ONE  OHIO  LEAGUE.  177 

Another  very  powerful  Kansas  League  is  de- 
scribed as  follows  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  Au- 
gust 31, 1854 : 

KANSAS  EMIGRATION  MOVEMENT. 

"We  have  received  the  proceedings  of  a  large  and  highly 
respectable  meeting  representing  different  portions  of  Ohio,  held 
at  Oberlin,  August  21st,  favorable  to  the  encouragement  of  emi- 
gration to  Kansas.  The  following  officers  were  chosen  for  the 
coming  year :  President — Prof.  J.  H.  Fairchild ;  Vice-Presidents — 
B.  Prentiss,  of  Medina;  Ralph  Plumb,  Trumbull;  the  Hon.  P. 
Bliss,  Lorain;  the  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Swan,  Franklin;  Lyman  Hall, 
Portage;  Uri  Seeley,  Lake;  the  Hon.  R.  P.  Spalding,  Cuyahoga; 
F.  D.  Punish,  Erie.  Corresponding  Secretary — John  A.  Reed, 
of  Oberlin.  Treasurer — H.  B.  Spellman,  of  Cleveland.  Exec- 
utive Committee — Prof.  J.  H.  Fairchild,  of  Oberlin;  John  A. 
Reed,  do.;  H.  B.  Spellman,  of  Cleveland;  Rev.  J.  A.  Thorne, 
do.;  Hon.  N.  S.  Townsend,  of  Avon;  Hon.  R.  C.  Hurd,  Mount 
Vernon;  W.  P.  Harris,  of  Oberlin;  O.  B.  Ryder,  do.  Principal — 
E.  H.  Fairchild,  do. ;  Prof.  E.  H.  Peck,  do. ;  Prof.  T.  B.  Hud- 
son, do. 

"The  object  of  the  association  is  to  collect  and  disseminate 
through  the  papers  and  otherwise,  as  far  as  possible,  such  infor- 
mation as  is  needed  with  regard  to  the  Territory  of  Kansas;  its 
climate,  advantages,  &c. ;  the  best  route  for  companies  emigrat- 
ing there;  to  co-operate  with  other  emigration  enterprises;  to 
send  agents  into  the  various  counties  of  the  State,  to  awaken  an 
interest  in  emigration  and  to  organize  emigrant  companies;  to 
raise  a  fund  by  the  first  of  March  next  to  be  appropriated  in  aid- 
ing emigration,  and  in  contributing  to  the  comfort  and  prosper- 
ity of  the  emigrant  after  his  arrival  in  Kansas." 

There  were  several  hundred  of  the  different  kinds 
of  societies,  leagues,  committees,  and  companies  in 
the  free  States.  Their  purposes  were  generally  like 
those  of  the  Oberlin  company,  above  given.  The 
Boston  company  was  the  only  one  which  made 
large  investments  in  Kansas  for  the  benefit  of  the 
8* 


178  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

emigrants.  The  others  collected  and  used  funds  to 
aid  emigrants  in  their  outfits  and  journey.  Each 
had  an  office  (usually  the  office  of  a  young  lawyer 
who  acted  as  secretary).  They  each  had  the  Her- 
ald of  Freedom,  published,  edited,  and  owned  by  G. 
W.  Brown,  Lawrence,  Kansas.  This  very  valuable 
paper  was  full  of  information  desired  by  the  emi- 
grant, both  in  relation  to  the  physical  advantages 
of  the  Territory  and  the  progress  of  the  grand  con- 
flict within  her  borders. 

They  also  had  Edward  Everett  Hale's  "Kansas 
and  Nebraska,"  an  invaluable  hand-book  for  emi- 
grants. In  addition  to  these  sources  of  informa- 
tion they  soon  had  letters  from  their  colonists  in 
Kansas,  which  they  published  in  the  local  papers. 
By  all  these  and  many  other  means,  the  zeal  in  the 
Kansas  cause  was  not  only  kept  alive  but  constant- 
ly increased  to  the  very  close  of  the  controversy. 
There  was  hardly  any  portion  of  the  free  States 
that  was  not  reached  by  some  one  of  these  numer- 
ous agencies. 

At  one  of  my  addresses  in  the  Assembly  chamber 
at  Albany,  the  venerable  Eliphalet  Kott,  President 
of  Union  College,  was  on  the  platform,  having  come 
from  Schenectady  to  attend  the  meeting.  After 
my  address  Dr.  Nott  said  that  he  wished  to  have  a 
talk  with  me,  and  would  stay  overnight  at  the  Del- 
avan  House  for  that  purpose.  I  assured  him  that 
the  interview  would  give  me  great  pleasure,  for 
while  I  was  a  student  in  Brown  University  I  had 
often  heard  Dr.  Wayland  speak  in  the  most  compli- 
mentary way  of  his  "  intellectual  father,  Dr.  Nott." 


ELIPHALET  XOTT,  D.D.  179 

"We  accordingly  went  to  the  hotel  and  conversed 
till  after  midnight.  I  had  before  been  questioned 
very  minutely  upon  the  methods  of  the  Kansas 
campaign  and  the  prospects  of  success,  but  never 
before  with  such  analyzing  scrutiny  and  such  pro- 
found sagacity.  One  of  his  numerous  inquiries  was 
rather  a  surprise  to  me — not  because  I  had  not  con- 
sidered the  subject — but  because  he  was  the  only 
man  who  ever  made  a  like  inquiry.  The  question 
was  this :  "  I  wish  you  would  tell  me,  Mr.  Thayer, 
just  what  kind  of  men  are  of  most  service  in  this 
Kansas  movement.  I  ask  this  question  because  I 
wish  to  either  verify  or  prove  false  an  opinion  I 
have  long  entertained  and  have  often  expressed  to 
my  boys.  Are  the  best  men,  in  this  case,  the  ones 
who  have  said  most,  or  said  least,  about  slavery  ?" 
"  The  men,"  said  I, "  who  say  little  or  nothing.  They 
show  the  greatest  impatience,  and  even  disgust, 
when  they  hear  a  ranting  resolution-maker  berating 
slavery.  They  seem  to  think  that  every  Northern 
man  understands  the  evils  of  slavery  without  being 
informed  of  them.  At  all  events,  they  have  long 
ago  passed  the  time  of  talking — if  they  ever  did 
talk — and  have  decided  to  act,  now  that  they  have 
a  chance  of  acting  effectively.  These  men  intend 
to  never  see  another  slave  State  in  this  Union.  If 
they  say  anything  at  all,  they  say,  '  "We  have  too 
many  such  now,  and  always  shall  have,  so  long  as 
there  are  any  at  all.  Slavery  must  go.  If  it  harms 
the  negro  it  destroys  white  men.  It  is  bad  econo- 
my and  bad  policy  every  way.' "  While  I  was  speak- 
ing the  countenance  of  the  patriarch  was  illumined 


180  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

as  if  by  a  joyful  appreciation  of  what  he  was  hear- 
ing. Then  he  said :  "  That  is  just  what  I  always 
tell  my  boys.  Restrain  your  feelings  until  they 
can  impel  you  to  right  action.  If  you  can  do  noth- 
ing, feel  as  little  as  possible ;  for  feeling,  in  such 
cases  only  debilitates.  Now  you  prove  my  teach- 
ing true  in  practice,  and  my  opinion  is  verified  in  a 
most  satisfactory  way." 

Dr.  Nott  at  this  time  (spring  of  1855)  was  con- 
siderably over  eighty  years  of  age,  having  gradu- 
ated at  Brown  University  in  1795,  just  fifty  years 
earlier  than  myself. 

A  few  weeks  before  this  interview  I  had  been 
speaking  in  the  State  of  Maine.  Charles  H.  Brans- 
comb,  the  conductor  of  our  colonies,  having  a  few 
weeks'  leisure,  was  sent  by  the  Boston  company  to 
arrange  for  the  meetings.  He  was  of  great  assist- 
ance in  this  way,  and  also  of  much  use  in  the  meet- 
ings, by  giving  a  graphic  account  of  the  condition 
of  affairs  in  Kansas,  where  he  had  been  several 
times,  and  was  well  able  to  speak  of  the  charms  of 
the  country  and  its  advantages  as  a  home.  He  also 
answered  numerous  inquiries  of  the  young  men 
who  were  proposing  to  join  our  colonies.  I  al- 
ways found  Mr.  Branscomb  a  faithful  and  efficient 
assistant. 

One  evening  I  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  Saco, 
and  was  advertised  to  address  one  in  Biddeford, 
across  the  river,  the  next  evening.  After  the  meet- 
ing in  Saco,  several  young  men  came  to  me  and 
said  that  they  had  been  appointed  a  committee  of 


MR.  GREELEY  LOSES  FAITH.  181 

a  company  intending  to  go  "West  early  in  the  spring ; 
that  they  had  been  thinking  of  Minnesota,  since 
some  of  their  friends  had  gone  there,  but  now  they 
were  inclining  towards  Kansas ;  that  they  would 
go  over  to  the  Biddeford  meeting  and  then  deter- 
mine whether  they  would  choose  Kansas  or  Min- 
nesota. 

After  my  address  in  Biddeford  these  young  men 
came  to  me  and  brought  a  recent  issue  of  the  New 
York  Tribune.  They  showed  me  an  editorial  of 
Mr.  Greeley's,  in  which  he  said  Kansas  would  be  a 
slave  State.  This,  they  said,  had  settled  the  ques- 
tion and  they  were  going  to  Minnesota. 

Thereupon  I  wrote  a  very  severe  letter  to  Mr. 
Greeley,  and  told  him  that  his  silly  editorial  had 
cost  me  one  colony  in  Saco,  and  possibly  a  dozen  in 
other  places ;  that  this  was  a  great  help  to  slavery 
and  great  harm  to  freedom.  Mr.  Greeley  did  not 
reply  to  me,  but  he  never  again  offended  in  the 
same  way.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this  was  the  hon- 
est opinion  of  the  great  philanthropist.  Mr.  Gree- 
ley had  one  weak  point.  He  was  evidently  deficient 
in  courage.  There  had  been  some  blood  spilled 
in  Kansas  already,  and  he  was  really  frightened 
into  conceding  Kansas  to  slavery.  Who  that  had 
read  those  glowing  editorials  already  quoted  in  a 
preceding  chapter  would  have  believed  it  possible 
that  his  "staying"  power  would  prove  so  unre- 
liable ? 

The  reader  will  recall  another  similar  instance 
occurring  some  years  later.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  Civil  War,  almost  every  issue  of  the  Tribune 


182  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

contained  a  furious  "  On-to-Richmond  "  editorial. 
After  Bull  Run,  all  this  fury  had  evaporated,  and 
Mr.  Greeley  wrote  to  President  Lincoln  that  it  was 
best  to  make  peace  on  any  terms. 

In  any  moral  controversy  there  was  no  limit 
to  Mr.  Greeley's  persistency  and  endurance.  But 
when  it  came  to  blood,  he  was  apparently  unrelia- 
ble. After  all,  he  was  an  invaluable  aid  in  the  early 
part  of  our  Kansas  work.  Through  the  weekly 
Tribune  numerous  Kansas  Leagues  were  made  in 
the  Middle  and  Western  States.  The  slight  harm 
he  did  in  1855  was  a  hundred  times  compensated 
for  by  his  eloquent  appeals  for  the  Plan  of  Free- 
dom in  1854. 

The  following  is  from  Professor  Spring's  "  Kan- 
sas," page  31.  He  explains  concisely  and  clearly 
the  philosophy  and  methods  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company,  and  demonstrates  its  efficiency. 

"The  facilities  offered  by  the  Boston  organization,  in  addition 
to  the  obvious  advantages  of  associated  effort,  were  reduction  in 
cost  of  transportation,  oversight  by  competent  conductors,  in- 
vestments of  capital  in  mills,  hotels,  and  other  improvements 
•which  would  mitigate  and  abbreviate  the  hardships  of  pioneering. 
Though  the  design  of  the  organization  was  frankly  avowed,  yet 
anybody,  whether  in  sympathy  with  its  mission  or  not,  might 
freely  avail  himself  of  its  advantages.  The  obligations  of  emi- 
grants who  went  to  Kansas  under  its  wing  were  wholly  implied 
and  informal.  Assuredly  it  offered  no  premium  for  extreme 
types  of  antislavery  men.  On  the  contrary,  a  Hunkerish  strain 
of  conservatism  prevailed  among  the  colonists  which  naturally 
provoked  criticism.  The  Liberator  of  June  1, 1855,  speaking  of 
the  personnel  of  the  companies  already  sent  on  to  Kansas,  re- 
marked that  '  hardly  a  single  Abolitionist  can  be  found  among 
all  who  have  migrated  to  that  country.  . . .  Before  they  emigrated 


PEOFESSOR  SPRING.  183 

they  gave  little  or  no  countenance  to  the  antislavery  cause  at 
home.  ...  If  they  had  no  pluck  here,  -what  could  rationally  be 
expected  of  them  in  the  immediate  presence  of  the  demoniacal 
spirit  of  slavery?  ...  To  place  any  reliance  on  their  antislavery 
zeal  or  courage  is  to  lean  upon  a  broken  staff.'  .  .  . 

"But  the  work  of  the  Boston  organization  cannot  be  adequate- 
ly exhibited  by  arithmetical  computations.  A  vital,  capital  part 
of  it  lay  in  spheres  where  mathematics  are  ineffectual — lay  in  its 
alighting  upon  a  feasible  method,  which  was  copied  far  and  wide, 
of  dealing  with  a  great  political  emergency,  and  in  the  backing 
of  social  and  monetary  prestige  that  it  secured  for  the  unknown 
pioneers  at  the  front. 

"If  volume  and  bitterness  of  criticism  afford  any  trustworthy 
standard  by  which  its  efficiency  may  be  tested,  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company  played  no  subordinate  part  in  the  Kansas  struggle." 

The  Christian  Register,  October  14, 1854,  has  the 
following : 

"The  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  even  if  not  seconded  by  others, 
is  alone  competent  to  determine  the  social  and  moral  fate  of  the 
spacious  West,  if  sustained  by  the  public.  Let  it  be  so  sustained, 
and  millions  yet  unborn  will  hereafter  hallow  the  names  of  those 
who  dispelled  from  that  region  the  dark  cloud  of  slavery,  and 
spread  the  inestimable  blessings  of  freedom,  peace,  virtue,  and 
pure  religion  over  their  vastly  extended  and  prosperous  heri- 
tage." 

The  effect  of  the  influx  of  free-State  settlers  into 
Kansas  soon  began  to  be  manifested.  What  had 
at  first  been  viewed  by  the  Missourians  with  con- 
tempt and  derision,  and  by  many  at  the  East  with 
indifference,  now  became  to  the  friends  of  the 
South  a  matter  of  serious  alarm,  and  aroused  the 
most  malignant  passions  of  the  Missouri  border 
ruffians.  It  created  a  feeling  that  spread  through 
the  entire  slave-holding  community,  and  excited  an 
intense  opposition  towards  a  scheme  which  it  was 


181  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

plain  to  them  was  to  establish  an  effectual  barrier 
to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  in  time  exterminate 
the  institution.  The  South  saw  that  it  was  impo- 
tent in  a  struggle  of  this  kind  with  the  North ;  that 
the  latter,  with  its  resources  of  wealth  and  popula- 
tion, and  its  spirit  of  enterprise,  would  inevitably 
overwhelm  them  in  this  contest.  All  the  powers 
of  press  and  rostrum  were  brought  to  bear  against 
the  new  scheme,  and  bluster  and  threats  were  re- 
sorted to  in  the  endeavor  to  stem  the  current  that 
was  to  ingulf  them.  More  desperate  methods  were 
applied  on  the  scene  of  action,  but  it  is  not  my  pur- 
pose to  give  any  narration  of  what  took  place  in 
Kansas ;  that  has  already  become  a  part  of  national 
history. 

Soon  the  greatest  enthusiasm  was  excited  in  the 
North.  Immense  crowds  gathered  along  the  route 
of  our  emigrant  companies,  and  the  journeys  through 
New  England,  and  as  far  west  as  Chicago,  were 
continued  ovations.  This  spirit  was  shown  even  in 
the  domestic  circle.  "  I  know  people,"  said  R.  "W. 
Emerson,  "  who  are  making  haste  to  reduce  their 
expenses  and  pay  their  debts,  not  with  a  view  to 
new  accumulations,  but  in  preparation  to  save  and 
earn  for  the  benefit  of  Kansas  emigrants." 

Loud  threats  of  disunion  were  indulged  in ;  and 
the  Southern  papers  teemed  with  abuse  of  the  Em- 
igrant Aid  Company  and  its  supporters.  Rewards 
were  offered  for  the  head  of  the  author  of  the  Plan.* 

*  The  following  notice  was  posted  in  Kansas  and  Missouri: 

"  $200  Reward.  We  arc  authorized  by  responsible  men  in 
this  neighborhood  to  offer  the  above  reward  for  the  apprehension 


CHARLESTON  MERCURY.  185 

But  there  were  those  among  them  who,  as  the 
movement  broadened,  contemplated  it  in  a  more 
serious  light,  and  gave  evidence  of  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  real  character  of  the  crisis.  The  follow- 
ing editorial  from  the  Charleston  Mercury  well  rep- 
resents the  views  of  this  class : 

"First.  By  consent  of  parties, the  present  contest  in  Kansas 
is  made  the  turning-point  in  the  destinies  of  slavery  and  Aboli- 
tionism.* If  the  South  triumphs,  Abolitionism  will  be  defeated 
and  shorn  of  its  power  for  all  time.  If  she  is  defeated,  Abolition- 
ism will  grow  more  insolent  and  aggressive,  until  the  utter  ruin 
of  the  South  is  consummated. 

"Second.  If  the  South  secures  Kansas,  she  will  extend  slavery 
into  all  the  territory  south  of  the  fortieth  parallel  of  north  lati- 
tude, to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  this,  of  course,  will  secure  for  her 
pent-up  institutions  of  slavery  an  ample  outlet,  and  restore  her 
power  in  Congress.  If  the  North  secures  Kansas,  the  power  of 
the  South  in  Congress  will  gradually  be  diminished,  the  States 
of  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  Texas,  together 
with  the  adjacent  Territories,  will  gradually  become  Abolition- 
ized,  and  the  slave  population  confined  to  the  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  will  become  valueless.  All  depends  upon  the  action 
of  the  present  moment." 

and  safe  delivery  into  the  hands  of  the  squatters  of  Kansas  Ter- 
ritory, of  one  Eli  Thayer,  a  leading  and  ruling  spirit  among  the 
Abolitionists  of  New  York  and  New  England.  Now,  therefore, 
it  behooves  all  good  citizens  of  Kansas  Territory  and  the  State 
of  Missouri  to  watch  the  advent  of  this  agent  of  Abolitionism; 
to  arrest  him,  and  deal  with  him  in  such  a  manner  as  the  enor- 
mity of  his  crimes  and  iniquities  shall  seem  to  merit.  Repre- 
senting all  the  Abolitionists,  he  consequently  bears  all  their  sins; 
and  the  blood  of  Batchelder  is  upon  his  head  crying  aloud  for 
expiation  at  the  hands  of  the  people." 

De  Bow's  Review  called  the  movement  "  Thayer's  Emigration," 
and  the  Southern  press  spoke  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  as 
"EliThayer&Co." 

*  By  Abolitionism  the  editor  intended  the  whole  antislavery 
element.  He  had  no  reference  to  Garrisonism. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

KANSAS   AND   JOHN    BKOWN. 

AFTER  the  annoying  incidents  at  Saco  and  Bidde- 
ford  already  chronicled  we  held  meetings  in  Port- 
land, Bath,  Brunswick,  and  Augusta.  In  the  last 
place  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Governor  Morrill 
and  of  many  members  of  the  House  and  the  Senate. 
My  object  was  to  secure  their  aid  in  providing  for 
meetings  at  their  homes  in  many  parts  of  the  State. 
These  appointments  were  made  for  the  autumn  of 
the  same  year.  Senator  Muzzy,  of  Bangor,  and  Sena- 
tor Gushing,  of  Belfast,  prepared  meetings  for  those 
localities,  while  others  arranged  for  speeches  in 
Thomaston,  Camden,  Oldtown,  Orono,  and  other 
places.  Having  planned  in  this  way  the  fall  cam- 
paign of  two  or  three  weeks  in  Maine,  we  held  the 
Augusta  meeting.  The  audience  contained  most  of 
the  members  of  the  Legislature,  and  was  presided 
over  by  a  young  man,  then  but  little  known,  James 
G.  Blaine.  Mr.  Branscomb  soon  returned  to  Bos- 
ton to  conduct  another  colony  to  Kansas,  and  I 
made  my  journey  westward,  speaking  in  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Northern  New  York. 

It  would  be  easy  to  fill  volumes  with  the  inci- 
dents and  the  interviews  at  all  the  places  where 
my  meetings  were  held.  The  feeling  about  Kansas 


«A  YANKEE  CITY."  187 

was  just  the  same  in  all  localities.  There  had  come 
to  be  a  resolute  determination  to  sustain  the  free- 
State  pioneers  already  in  Kansas  by  such  reinforce- 
ments of  men  and  such  contributions  of  money  and 
arms  as  they  might  need.  It  was  now  apparent  in 
every  town  that  the  people,  without  distinction  of 
party,  had  accepted  the  policy  of  action  pursued 
by  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  and  that  they  had 
no  desire  to  return  to  the  silly  work  of  resolution- 
making.  This  company  bought  a  hotel  at  Kansas 
City  for  the  accommodation  of  our  emigrants  upon 
their  arrival,  and  were  building  another  and  larger 
one  at  Lawrence.  We  had  already  built  several 
steam-mills  for  the  grinding  of  grain  and  the  man- 
ufacture of  lumber.  These  steam-engines  were 
really  the  eloquent  apostles  of  freedom. 

One  day,  in  1855,  Senator  Atchison,  with  a  dozen 
border  ruffians,  was  at  the  wharf  in  Kansas  City, 
when  a  river-boat  approached  with  one  of  our  en- 
gines on  the  deck.  Atchison,  turning  to  those  on 
his  right,  asked,  "  What  is  that  on  the  deck  of  the 
steamer  ?"  His  companions  answered,  "  Senator, 
that  is  a  steam-engine  and  a  steam-boiler."  Turn- 
ing to  those  on  his  left,  he  repeated  his  former 
question.  They  repeated  the  reply  before  given. 

"  You  are  all  a  pack  of fools ;  that  is  a  Yankee 

city  going  to  Kansas,  and  by !  in  six  months  it 

will  cast  one  hundred  Abolition  votes." 

During  the  summer  months  I  made  many  speech- 
es in  Massachusetts,  Khode  Island,  and  Connecticut. 
In  New  Haven  I  made  three  speeches  at  different 
times  to  secure  the  raising  of  the  celebrated  colony 


188  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

which  in  the  summer  of  the  next  year,  under  the 
lead  of  Hon.  C.  B.  Lines,  founded  in  Kansas  the 
town  of  Wabaunsee.  Professor  Silliman,  Dr.  Wool- 
sey,  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  and  Professor  Twining 
were  active  workers  in  support  of  the  Plan  of 
Freedom,  and  the  first  of  these  became  a  director 
in  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 

In  my  Hartford  meetings,  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell 
was  active  and  energetic.  He  collected  over  one 
thousand  dollars  for  our  treasury  and  became  one 
of  our  directors. 

In  the  autumn  I  returned  to  Maine  and  addressed 
thousands  of  people  in  halls,  in  churches,  and  some- 
times the  lumbermen  sitting  on  logs  in  the  open 
air.  Most  of  the  meetings  were  densely  packed, 
but  these  of  the  lumbermen  had  "  scope  and  verge 
enough." 

The  result  of  these  meetings  was  a  valuable  ac- 
cession to  the  free-State  pioneers. 

I  then  returned  to  Boston,  and  had  a  meeting 
with  the  members  of  our  executive  committee. 
Our  company  had  exhausted  all  its  funds,  and  was 
in  debt.  Our  worthy  treasurer  had  advanced 
money  up  to  his  fixed  limit,  $6000,  from  his  own 
funds.  Some  of  the  committee  were  entirely  dis- 
couraged, and  even  ready  to  abandon  the  enter- 
prise, on  account  of  the  pecuniary  straits  in  which 
the  company  was  placed.  "  This  work,"  they  said, 
"  is  arduous,  and  from  lack  of  money  very  wearing 
and  perplexing'.  Money  must  be  had  directly,  or 
the  work  of  saving  Kansas  discontinued.  The  most, 
unwise  act  we  ever  did  was  the  surrender  of  the 


REPENTANCE.  189 

old  charter,  which  would  have  furnished  ample 
means  on  a  business  basis.  This  depending  on 
charity  is  annoying  and  humiliating." 

In  reply,  I  told  the  committee  that  it  was  very 
pleasing  to  me  to  hear  from  their  own  lips  their 
confession  of  error  in  substituting  the  charity  plan 
for  the  old  business  charter.  Had  we  retained  the 
latter,  and  made  investments  in  Kansas  City  which 
our  own  work  would  build  up,  we  could  easily  have 
become  a  very  formidable  power  against  slavery, 
not  only  in  the  Territories,  but  in  the  States  as 
well.  But  as  the  choice  had  long  ago  been  made, 
and  as  we  had  progressed  so  far  under  the  false 
method,  we  could  not  now  change  it ;  that  I  was 
not  an  "  Immediativist "  ;  that  the  work  must  be 
neither  suspended  nor  discontinued,  nor  even  hin- 
dered, for  the  want  of  money ;  that  I  preferred 
very  much  to  continue  gathering  colonies,  but  if 
necessary  I  would  raise  as  much  money  as  they 
were  in  need  of.  Accordingly,  without  delay,  I 
went  to  New  York  City  on  that  mission.  The 
narration  of  the  events  there,  and  of  my  success  in 
raising  the  needed  contributions,  will  be  recorded 
in  the  next  chapter. 

At  this  point  I  will  introduce  an  episode  pertain- 
ing to  our  friend  Amos  A.  Lawrence. 

While  I  was  in  Maine,  John  Brown  found  his 
way  to  Boston  and  induced  Mr.  Lawrence  to  fur- 
nish him  money  to  pay  his  expenses  to  Kansas. 

I  first  became  acquainted  with  Amos  A.  Law- 
rence early  in  June,  1854,  directly  after  my  return 
from  the  conference  with  Mr.  Greeley  in  New 


190  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

York  City.  From  that  time  to  the  end  of  the 
Kansas  struggle  he  was  treasurer  of  our  company. 
Like  his  father,  Amos  Lawrence,  he  was  distin- 
guished for  his  practical  philanthropy,  his  sterling 
integrity,  his  fearless  and  conscientious  discharge 
of  duty,  and  his  sound  and  conservative  views  upon 
all  subjects.  He  styled  himself  a  "  Hunker  Whig." 
He  voted  for  Bell  and  Everett  in  1860,  and  was  as 
far  removed  from  sympathy  with  radical  Abolition- 
ists as  any  man  in  the  Union.  But  in  the  plan  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  he  was  happy  to  find 
a  way  of  circumventing  the  purposes  of  slavery 
without  violating  the  law,  the  Constitution,  or  the 
Union.  He  became  at  once  an  earnest,  fearless, 
and  hopeful  worker  in  the  cause  of  free  Kansas. 
His  cheerful  courage  was  always  an  inspiration  to 
the  lovers  of  our  cause,  even  in  its  greatest  per- 
plexities and  dangers.  It  was  easy  for  almost  any 
one  who  professed  a  desire  to  aid  in  the  work  of 
making  Kansas  a  free  State  to  secure  his  entire 
confidence.  If  this  were  a  weakness,  it  leaned  so 
decidedly  towards  right  and  justice  of  purpose 
that  no  good  man  can  judge  him  harshly. 

But  his  confidence  in  men  was  sometimes  abused. 
There  were  several  instances  of  this  in  the  course 
of  our  struggle,  but  the  most  notable  one  was  in 
the  case  of  John  Brown.  Mr.  Lawrence  furnished 
him  the  money  which  enabled  him  to  pay  his  fare 
to  Kansas  late  in  the  year  1855.  Subsequently  he 
contributed  for  his  use  in  the  Territory,  and  for 
travelling  outside  of  it,  many  important  sums.  He 
also  furnished  about  one  thousand  dollars  to  pay  a 


A.  A.  LAWRENCE  ON  JOHN  BROWN.  191 

mortgage  on  Brown's  home  at  North  Elba,  N.  Y. 
For  one  or  two  years  he  regarded  Brown  as  an 
honest  man  and  a  useful  aid  to  the  free-State  cause. 
At  length,  however,  he  learned  how  his  confidence 
had  been  abused,  and  from  that  time  no  one  ever 
denounced  the  Pottawatomie  assassin  in  more  vig- 
orous English.  The  following  remarks  of  Mr. 
Lawrence  were  made  before  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  and  can  be  found  in  their  pub- 
lished proceedings  for  May,  1884. 
Mr.  Amos  A.  Lawrence  said : 

"When  Eli  Thayer  obtained  the  charter  of  the  New  England 
Emigrant  Aid  Society,  and  began  to  preach  up  the  Kansas  cru- 
sade, the  organization  was  completed  here  in  Boston;  and  Dr. 
Robinson,  of  Fitchburg,  was  chosen  to  be  the  Territorial  agent, 
Charles  H.  Branscomb  took  charge  of  the  emigrant  parties,  and 
8.  C.  Pomeroy  was  financial  agent  in  Kansas. 

"The  enthusiasm  increased;  parties  were  formed  all  over  the 
Northern  States.  The  Emigrant  Aid  Company  undertook  to 
give  character  and  direction  to  the  whole.  This  society  was  to 
be  loyal  to  the  Government  under  all  circumstances ;  it  was  to 
support  the  party  of  law  and  order,  and  it  was  to  make  Kansas 
a  free  State  by  bona  fide  settlement,  if  at  all.  Charles  Robin- 
son had  the  requisite  qualities  to  direct  this  movement.  He  had 
had  great  experience  in  the  troubles  of  California.  He  was 
cool,  judicious,  and  entirely  devoid  of  fear,  and  in  every  respect 
worthy  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  the  settlers  and  the 
society.  He  was  obliged  to  submit  to  great  hardship  and  injus- 
tice, chiefly  through  the  imbecility  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment agents.  He  was  imprisoned,  his  house  was  burned,  and 
his  life  was  often  threatened;  yet  he  never  bore  arms,  nor  omit- 
ted to  do  whatever  he  thought  to  be  his  duty.  He  sternly  held 
the  people  to  their  loyalty  to  the  Government,  against  the  argu- 
ments and  example  of  the  '  higher  law '  men,  who  were  always 
armed,  who  were  not  real  settlers,  and  who  were  bent  on  bring- 
ing about  a  border  war,  which  they  hoped  would  extend  to  the 


192  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

older  States.  The  policy  of  the  New  England  Society,  carried 
out  by  Robinson  aud  those  who  acted  with  him  in  Kansas,  was 
finally  successful  and  triumphant.  David  Atchison  and  his 
hordes  retired  from  the  scene;  the  few  negro  slaves  who  had 
been  carried  into  the  Territory  disappeared,  and  now  (1884)  the 
State  contains  one  million  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 
without  paupers  and  without  beggars.  A  whole  generation  is 
coming  up  who  do  not  know  the  taste  of  ardent  spirits.  This 
has  always  been  a  favorite  theory  and  practice  of  Robinson; 
and  now  they  have  gone  beyond  him,  and  have  inserted  prohi- 
bition in  the  State  Constitution,  and  elected  their  State  officers 
on  that  issue. 

"But  what  shall  we  say  of  John  Brown?  His  course  was  the 
opposite  of  Robinson's.  ...  He  was  always  armed;  he  was  al- 
ways disloyal  to  the  United  States  Government  and  to  all  gov- 
ernment except  to  what  he  called  the  '  higher  law.'  He  was 
always  ready  to  shed  blood,  and  he  always  did  shed  it  without 
remorse;  for  '  without  blood,'  as  he  often  said,  '  there  can  be  no 
remission.' .  .  . 

"In  the  night  of  May  23,  1856,  Mr.  Doyle  and  his  two  sons 
were  taken  from  their  beds  at  Pottawatomie,  and  caused  to  walk 
one  hundred  yards  from  their  house,  when  the  father  was  shot 
dead  by  Brown,  while  the  sons  were  stabbed  and  hacked  to 
death  with  straight  navy  swords  in  the  hands  of  Brown's  sons. 
Mr.  Wilkinson,  who  was  taking  care  of  a  sick  wife,  was  obliged 
to  leave  her  and  go  with  the  midnight  party,  who  brutally  mur- 
dered him,  not  so  far  from  his  wife  but  that  she  heard  the  strug- 
gle and  the  final  shot. 

"William  Sherman  was  another  victim  of  these  midnight  as- 
sassins, who  were  not  then  known,  but  who  are  now  known  per- 
fectly. The  evidence  is  complete.  Professor  Spring,  of  the 
State  University  of  Kansas,  is  preparing  a  work  upon  the  early 
history  of  that  State,  which  will  contain  the  truth,  with  all  the 
proofs;  so  that  hereafter  there  can  be  no  such  statements  made 
as  have  deceived  nearly  a  whole  generation. 

"  It  fell  to  me  to  give  John  Brown  his  first  letter  to  Kansas,  in- 
troducing him  to  Governor  Robinson,  and  authorizing  him  to 
employ  him  and  to  draw  on  me  for  his  compensation  if  he  could 
make  him  useful  in  the  work  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 
But  very  soon  Governor  Robinson  wrote  that  he  would  not  em- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  193 

ploy  him,  as  he  was  unreliable,  and  'would  as  soon  shoot  a 
United  States  officer  as  a  border  ruffian. ' 

"When  he  was  a  prisoner  at  Harper's  Ferry  I  wrote  to  Gov- 
ernor Wise,  advising  his  release,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a 
monomaniac,  and  that  his  execution  would  make  him  a  martyr. 
The  answer  to  this  letter  was  very  creditable  to  Governor 
Wise.  .  .  . 

"John  Brown  had  no  enemies  in  New  England,  but  many 
friends  and  admirers.  He  was  constantly  receiving  money  from 
them.  They  little  knew  what  use  he  was  making  of  it,  for  he 
deceived  everybody.  If  he  had  succeeded  in  his  design  at  Har- 
per's Ferry  of  exciting  a  servile  insurrection,  the  country  would 
have  stood  aghast  with  horror;  his  would  have  been  anything 
but  a  martyr's  crown." 

John  Brown  has  now  very  few  admirers  except 
the  congenial  anarchists  and  Nihilists,  who  despise 
all  law,  and  hate  all  the  restraints  of  government. 
Mr.  Lawrence's  estimate  of  Brown  above  given  has 
been  generally  sustained.  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his 
Cooper  Institute  speech,  said,  with  his  characteris- 
tic "  charity  for  all " : 

"John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave  insur- 
rection. It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to  get  up  a  revolt 
among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves  refused  to  participate.  lu 
fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that  the  slaves,  in  all  their  ignorance,  saw 
plainly  enough  it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philoso- 
phy, corresponds  with  the  many  attempts  related  in  history  at 
the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An  enthusiast  broods 
over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he  fancies  himself  commis- 
sioned by  Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ventures  the  attempt, 
which  ends  in  little  else  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  at- 
tempt on  Louis  Napoleon  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's 
Ferry  were,  in  their  philosophy,  the  same.  The  eagerness  to 
cast  blame  on  Old  England  in  the  one  place  and  on  New  England 
in  the  other  does  not  disprove  the  sameness  of  the  two  things." 

The  Chicago  Republican  convention  which  nom- 
9 


194  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

inated  Mr.  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency  in  1860 
unanimously  resolved  that  Brown  was  one  of  the 
greatest  of  criminals. 

Thaddeus  Stevens  said,  "Brown  ought  to  be 
hung  for  attempting  to  capture  Virginia  in  the 
way  he  did." 

Henry  Wilson  said,  "John  Brown  is  a  d d 

old  fool." 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  in  the  Century  Magazine,  have 
proved  Senator  Wilson's  estimate  of  him  correct. 

When  Brown  made  his  invasion  of  Virginia,  and 
during  his  trial,  conviction,  and  execution,  I  was  a 
member  of  Congress,  and  had  the  means  of  know-"" 
ing  the  opinions  of  other  members.  There  was  not 
one  of  that  body  who  considered  his  punishment 
unjust.  A  few,  however,  were  of  the  opinion  that 
it  would  have  been  better  to  have  put  him  in  a 
mad-house  for  life.  This  method  would  have  pre- 
vented the  grotesque  efforts  of  a  few  of  his  sympa- 
thizers and  supporters  to  parade  him  before  the 
country  as  a  "  martyr." 

But  these  anarchists  were  ever  ready  with  pen 
and  voice  to  extol  any  mental  or  moral  deformity, 
especially  tending  towards  the  ruin  of  our  Govern- 
ment. The  owner  of  a  dime  museum  exults  in  the 
possession  of  physical  monstrosities.  So  the  dis- 
unionists  had  a  wonderful  affection  for  cranks  and 
monomaniacs.  They  could  see  nothing  to  admire 
in  men  like  Horace  Mann,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  and 
Rev.  Dr.  Bellows  —  illustrious  examples  of  high 
mental  and  moral  attainments.  Such  men  were 
denounced  unsparingly  in  the  columns  of  the  Lib- 


JOHN  BROWN'S  CRIMES.  195 

erator,  as  also  the  other  great  antislavery  leaders 
who  favored  practical  methods.  This  "despised 
handful  of  Abolitionists"  were  eager  to  hail  the 
Pottawatomie  assassin  as  "  martyr  and  saint." 

John  Brown  arrived  in  Kansas  nearty  two  years 
after  the  conflict  there  against  slavery  began.  He 
was  a  great  injury  to  the  free-State  cause,  and  to 
the  free-State  settlers.  He  said,  "  I  have  not  come 
to  make  Kansas  free,  but  to  get  a  shot  at  the 
South."  He  wished  to  begin  a  civil  war.  He  was 
the  pupil  of  the  Garrisonites  and  afterwards  their 
god.  He  never  had  any  property  in  Kansas  which 
might  be  subject  to  retaliation  and  reprisal  for  his 
crimes.  Skulking  about  under  various  disguises 
and  pretences,  he  left  the  free-State  settlers  to  suf- 
fer for  his  numerous  outrages.  At  length  they 
compelled  him  to  leave  the  Territory. 

The  last  instalment  of  Missouri  vengeance  for 
his  many  murders,  raids,  and  robberies,  and  for  the 
subsequent  thieving  invasions  of  Lane,  fell  upon 
Lawrence  in  the  Quantrell  raid,  and  cost  her  the 
lives  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  of  her  citi- 
zens. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  by 
me  to  the  New  York  Sun,  and  published  in  that 
journal  November  27,  1887,  gives  some  details  of 
this  "  hero's  "  career. 

"  It  is  charity  to  rank  Brown  as  a  monomaniac  in  the  same  list 
with  Orsini,  Guiteau,  Booth,  and  Freeman.  But  his  admirers 
do  not  allow  this,  for  it  would  ruin  him  as  a  'saint  and  martyr.' 
They  contend  not  only  that  he  was  sane,  but  that  he  was  a  great 
moral  hero.  If  we  admit  his  sanity,  we  must  then  regard  him 


196  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

either  as  a  felon  or  a  fiend.  After  he  had  proved  himself  a 
robber,  murderer,  and  traitor,  and  while  almost  everybody  was 
denouncing  him  as  such,  the  Garrison  disunionists,  under  whose 
tuition  he  had  matured,  immediately  began  his  apotheosis.  The 
files  of  the  Liberator  and  the  reported  eulogies  of  Wendell  Phil- 
lips, delivered  wherever  he  could  get  a  hearing,  are  abundant 
proof  of  this  fact.  Themselves  monomaniacs,  they  were  delight- 
ed to  discover  a  hero  so  well  adapted  to  their  characters  and 
tastes. 

"These  are  the  men  responsible  for  the  terrible  growth  of 
anarchy  in  this  country.  They  made  a  deity  of  the  prince  of 
anarchists,  a  colossus  in  crime,  compared  with  whom  the  men 
recently  executed  at  Chicago  were  only  pygmies. 

"It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  the  anarchists  of  to-day  acknowl- 
edge their  rightful  king,  and  sing  at  their  nocturnal  conventions 
John  Brown  songs.  This  is  the  most  appropriate  commentary 
we  have  yet  had  upon  the  character  of  Garrison  and  Phillips, 
'  martyr  and  saint.'  Their  eulogies  found  echoes  in  feeble  pulpit 
utterances  and  occasionally  in  public  lectures.  In  this  way  the 
deadly  virus  of  anarchy  infected  and  poisoned  public  sentiment. 

"  But  what  did  John  Brown  do  ?  In  Kansas  he  dragged  from 
their  beds  at  midnight  three  men  and  two  boys  and  hacked  them 
in  pieces  with  two-edged  cleavers,  in  such  way  that  the  massacre 
was  reported  to  be  the  work  of  wild  Indians.  If  any  butcher 
in  New  York  City  should  hack  and  slash  to  death  his  own  hogs 
and  steers  as  John  Brown  hacked  and  slashed  to  death  these 
men  and  boys  in  Kansas,  he  would  be  arrested  and  imprisoned 
without  delay.  After  this  Brown  slew  an  unarmed,  inoffensive 
farmer  in  Missouri.  In  his  murderous  raid  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
the  first  man  he  slew  was  a  negro  engaged  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duty  at  the  freight  station  there.  For  some  weeks  before 
this  raid  he  had  been  wandering  about  in  Virginia,  trying  to 
enlist  negroes  in  his  little  rebellion.  In  one  place  he  professed 
to  be  a  geologist.  In  several  places  he  professed  to  be  a  Dr.  Mc- 
Lain — a  specialist  in  hernia.  He  examined  many  slaves  for  this 
disease,  by  consent  of  masters,  to  whom  he  said  that  negroes 
were  more  subject  to  it  than  any  other  class.  In  a  Presbyterian 
house  he  was  a  Presbyterian  minister.  He  remained  one  day 
and  two  nights  and  examined  over  forty  slaves.  He  next  visited 
a  Baptist  family,  and  there  professed  to  be  a  Baptist  minister. 


BROWN  TO  BE  DICTATOR.  197 

He  had  written  out  a  plan  of  government  for  the  South,  which 
was  once  in  possession  of  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  of  Boston.  This 
plan  provided  that  Brown  should  be  military  commander-in- 
chief  in  the  negro  government  about  to  be  established. 

"  To  the  above  should  be  added  the  robbing  of  stores  in  Kan- 
sas, the  stealing  of  horses,  the  invasion  of  Missouri,  and  the  steal- 
ing of  about  $4000  worth  of  oxen,  mules,  wagons,  harness,  and 
such  valuable  and  portable  property  as  he  could  find.  He  was  a 
merciless  and  most  unscrupulous  jay  hawker. 

"  The  above  is  a  faint  picture  of  the  '  noble  John  Brown.' 
Much  more  of  the  same  import  could  be  given,  but  this  is  enough, 
except  for  Anarchists  who  wish  to  become  unrivalled  experts  in 
crime. 

"  After  his  midnight  murders  in  Kansas,  all  the  people  about 
Ossawatomie  assembled  to  express  their  indignation  and  to  take 
measures  to  bring  the  '  fiends '  to  justice.  Here  on  most  friendly 
terms  met  the  free-State  and  the  slave-State  men.  In  the  over- 
shadowing gloom  of  such  terrible  crime,  all  partisan  issues  were 
forgotten.  The  underlying  brotherhood  of  man  asserted  itself 
in  unity  against  an  enemy  of  the  human  race.  But  what  enemy  ? 
John  Brown,  with  characteristic  lying,  denied  that  he  was  pres- 
ent at  this  massacre,  or  that  he  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 
No  fact  in  history  is  now  better  established  than  the  fact  that  he 
was  father  of  the  crime  and  the  leader  of  the  assassins." 

The  editorial  comments  of  the  Sun  upon  this  let- 
ter places  a  proper  estimate  upon  the  character  of 
this  noted  anarchist : 

A  HISTORICAL  VIEW  OF  JOHN  BROWN. 

"  We  publish  elsewhere  a  letter  presenting  a  new  view  of 
John  Brown,  or  a  view  which  seems  new  in  these  days,  though 
it  was  taken  by  many  conservative  and  sensible  men  of  this 
country  at  the  time  of  his  mad  attempt  to  wage  war  against 
slavery  on  his  own  account. 

"The  letter,  it  must  be  understood,  is  not  written  by  one  of 
the  old  apologists  for  slavery,  but  by  a  man  who  from  first  to 
last  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  slavery,  and  who  was  greatly  instru- 
mental in  bringing  about  its  exclusion  from  Kansas.  As  early 


198  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

as  1854,  when  Mr  Eli  Thayer  was  a  Representative  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Legislature  from  the  town  of  Worcester,  the  historic 
centre  of  the  antislavery  agitation,  he  conceived  the  plan  of 
frustrating  the  purpose  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
by  encouraging  and  assisting  emigration  to  Kansas  from  the  free 
States  of  the  North.  His  scheme  was  to  fill  up  the  Territory 
with  settlers  who  would  vote  'to  save  Kansas  to  freedom,'  and 
for  years  he  gave  himself  up  to  zealous  and  self-sacrificing  efforts 
to  carry  it  into  successful  execution. 

"  Mr.  Thayer  therefore  sympathized  with  John  Brown  in  his 
detestation  of  slavery  and  dread  of  its  advancing  political  power, 
and  yet  he  classes  him  with  John  Most  and  with  the  anarchists 
so  justly  hanged  at  Chicago  the  other  day.  Instead  of  having 
been  the  'great  moral  hero'  his  admirers  of  this  time  would 
make  him,  Mr.  Thayer,  who  speaks  from  intimate  personal 
knowledge  of  the  man  and  his  career  in  Kansas,  describes  John 
Brown  as  a  'felon  or  a  fiend,' a  'robber,  murderer,  and  traitor,' 
and  gives  instances  of  his  conduct  in  Kansas  and  in  Virginia  to 
justify  the  truth  of  the  description. 

"Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  famous  speech  at  Cooper  Institute 
in  February,  1860,  a  few  mouths  before  his  first  nomination  for 
the  Presidency,  agreed  with  Mr.  Thayer  in  ranking  John  Brown 
with  the  monomaniacs  who  resort  to  assassination  for  the  cure 
of  what  seem  to  them  social  and  political  evils.  '  Orsini's  at- 
tempt on  Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's 
Ferry,'  said  Lincoln, '  were,  in  their  philosophy,  the  same';  and 
he  further  described  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair  as  'so  absurd  that 
the  slaves,  in  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough  it  could  not 
succeed.'  These  words,  too,  were  uttered  in  the  February  after 
the  hanging  of  John  Brown  at  Charlestown,  in  Virginia,  on  the 
2d  of  December,  1859,  and  they  expressed  a  sentiment  so  general 
at  the  North  that  the  great  Republican  leader  felt  it  necessary  to 
speak  them  so  emphatically. 

"At  that  time  the  Abolitionists,  always  a  small  and  a  detested 
body  of  fanatics,  had  reached  the  firm  conclusion  that  their  only 
hope  lay  in  the  dissolution  of  the  Union.  They  were  out-and- 
out  disunionists,  trampling  on  the  Constitution  at  their  meetings 
as  '  a  league  with  death  and  a  covenant  with  hell,'  and  declaring 
that '  there  was  no  issue  of  any  importance  except  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union.'  For  that  reason  they  did  all  they  could  to 


THE  NEW  YORK  SUN.  199 

put  back  Mr.  Thayer's  efforts  to  make  Kansas  a  free  State.  They 
wanted  to  see  slavery  so  far  extended  that  the  North  would  be 
forced  into  disunionism  as  a  measure  of  revenge  and  self-pro- 
tection, and  the  war  of  secession  would  be  started  by  the  North 
rather  than  the  South.  Therefore  they  were  quick  to  make  of 
John  Brown  a  martyr  to  their  cause,  in  the  hope  of  inflaming 
the  hostility  between  the  two  parts  of  the  Union.  But  Lincoln 
and  the  Republican  party  refused  to  accept  their  hero,  and  were 
consequently  even  more  bitterly  assailed  than  before  by  the 
Abolitionists  as  accessaries  and  partners  in  the  great  '  crime  of 
slavery.' 

"These  are  doubtless  the  facts  of  history,  and  Mr.  Thayer  does 
the  public  a  service  in  calling  attention  to  them  at  a  time  when 
the  anarchists  are  attempting  to  justify  their  savagery  by  point- 
ing "to  John  Brown  as  a  great  moral  hero,  whose  memory  is  re- 
vered by  his  countrymen  and  honored  by  the  whole  world." 

Another  statement  in  regard  to  Brown's  career 
had  been  made  by  me  in  a  letter  to  the  Boston 
Herald,  published  August  22,  1887,  correcting  a 
passage  in  Nicolay  and  Hay's  "  Life  of  Lincoln." 
The  following  is  an  extract  from  this  letter : 

"These  writers  say,  on  page  517:  'In  association,  habit,  lan- 
guage, and  conduct,  he  was  clean,  but  coarse ;  honest, but  rude.' 

"  Two  circumstances,  however,  indicate  that  he  was  practising 
a  deception  upon  the  committees  and  the  public.  He  entered 
into  a  contract  with  a  blacksmith  in  Collinsville,  Ct.,  to  man- 
ufacture for  him  one  thousand  pikes  of  a  certain  pattern,  to  be 
completed  in  ninety  days,  and  paid  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
on  the  contract.  There  is  no  record  that  he  mentioned  this  mat- 
ter to  any  committee.  His  proposed  Kansas  minute-men  were 
only  one  hundred  in  number,  and  the  pikes  could  not  be  for 
them.  His  explanation  to  the  blacksmith  that  they  would  be 
a  good  weapon  of  defence  for  Kansas  settlers,  was  clearly  a 
subterfuge.  These  pikes,  ordered  about  March  23,  1857,  were 
without  doubt  intended  for  his  Virginia  invasion,  and,  in  fact, 
the  identical  lot,  finished  after  long  delay,  under  the  same  con- 
tract, were  shipped  to  him  in  September,  1859,  and  were  actually 


200  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

used  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  attempt.  The  other  circumstance  is 
that,  about  the  time  of  his  contract  for  the  pikes,  he  also,  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  committees  or  friends,  engaged  a  worthless 
adventurer  named  Forbes  to  go  West  and  give  military  instruc- 
tions to  his  company,  a  measure  neither  useful  nor  practicable  for 
Kansas'  defence.  These  two  acts  may  be  taken  as  the  first  prep- 
aration for  Harper's  Ferry. 

"  These  are  constructive  lies.  But  John  Brown  made  use  of 
many  others  in  his  preparation  for  the  Virginia  raid,  which  were 
in  no  way  doubtful  or  equivocal. 

"1.  He  came  to  me  in  Worcester  to  solicit  a  contribution  of 
arms  for  the  defence  of  some  Kansas  settlements  which  he  said 
he  knew  were  soon  to  be  attacked  by  parties  already  organized 
in  Missouri  for  that  purpose.  Not  doubting  his  word,  I  gave 
him  all  the  arms  I  had,  in  value  about  five  hundred  dollars. 

"2.  Under  the  same  false  pretence  he  secured  another  contri- 
bution from  Ethan  Allen  &  Co.,  manufacturers  of  arms  in  this 
city.  These  arms  also  were  never  taken  to  Kansas,  but  were 
captured  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

"  3,  Before  his  attack  upon  the  United  States  arsenal  he  spent 
several  weeks  in  Virginia.  He  pretended  to  be  a  mineralogist, 
and  went  about  with  a  hammer  breaking  off  the  corners  of  rocks. 
Under  the  pretext  of  seeking  for  copper  he  found  opportunities 
for  trying  to  enlist  slaves  in  his  little  rebellion.  The  representa- 
tive in  Congress  from  the  Harper's  Ferry  district  gave  me  these 
facts. 

"4.  Under  the  same  false  pretence  of  aiding  the  settlers  in 
Kansas  he  procured  funds  from  several  New  York  merchants, 
one  of  whom  says  that  he  gave  him  fifty  dollars. 

"5.  In  1858  he  made  a  raid  into  Missouri,  murdered  Mr.  Crews, 
a  peaceable  old  farmer,  and  took  away  eleven  slaves,  with  about 
four  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  oxen,  mules,  wagons,  harness, 
saddles,  and  other  property.  As  soon  as  he  had  got  outside  of 
the  State,  he  sent  agents  in  all  directions  to  solicit  aid  to  get  the 
eleven  negroes  to  Canada.  He  was  from  December  to  April  get- 
ting them  through.  This  slow  movement  was  doubtless  for  the 
purpose  of  prolonging  as  much  as  possible  the  time  for  his  agents 
to  procure  funds.  His  plunder  and  his  collections  went,  proba- 
bly, to  increase  his  Harper's  Ferry  fund. 

"6.  He  often  asserted  that  in  the  above  raid  he  liberated  sev- 


"  CRANKS.' 


201 


eral  slaves  without  bloodshed  and  without  the  use  of  weapons. 
It  is  proved  that  Mr.  Crews  was  killed  in  that  raid. 

' '  7.  He  repeatedly  said  that  he  was  not  present  at  the  Potta- 
watomie  midnight  massacre.  It  is  proved  that  he  was  present 
as  commander  of  the  assassins." 

Every  great  and  long-continued  agitation  of  the 
public  mind  is  certain  to  develop  "  cranks."  They 
are  the  foam  upon  the  billows  of  public  excitement. 
They  do  not  make  the  billows,  but  are  made  by 
them.  A  very  young  child  might  think  these 
white-caps  were  really  the  storm-king,  raising  and 
controlling  the  billows,  guiding  and  governing  the 
storm.  Such  frothy  interlopers  had  reached  Kan- 
sas near  the  close  of  the  struggle.  They  did  little 
but  harm. 

Professor  Spring,  in  his  "  Kansas,"  has  assigned 
them  their  proper  place  in  history. 
9* 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   SINEWS   OF   WAK. 

IN  accordance  with  the  plan  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  I  went  directly  to  New  York  City 
to  raise  the  money  necessary  to  enable  the  company 
to  continue  its  Kansas  work.  Upon  my  arrival  I 
found  Simeon  Draper  and  George  "W.  Blunt,  and 
stated  to  them  the  need  of  immediate  help  in  mon- 
ey. "  How  much  ?"  said  Mr.  Blunt.  I  replied, "  Some- 
where from  thirty  to  fifty  thousand  dollars ;  and 
without  much  delay."  "  How  do  you  propose  to 
raise  such  a  sum  ?"  "  If  you  will  get  me  a  chance 
to  speak  to  twenty  or  thirty  antislavery  men  of 
means,  this  evening,  I  will  then  show  you  how  the 
money  is  to  be  secured.  Can  you  get  these  men 
together  ?"  After  Mr.  Blunt  and  Mr.  Draper  had 
conferred  for  a  few  minutes,  Mr.  Blunt  said  that 
he  would  invite  a  meeting  in  the  parlors  of  his 
house  at  eight  o'clock.  I  was  pleased  with  the  offer, 
and  promised  to  be  promptly  at  the  place.  Mr. 
Blunt  faithfully  kept  his  word,  for  I  found  in  his 
parlors,  at  the  time  appointed,  about  thirty  promi- 
nent and  wealthy  business  and  professional  men. 
Without  any  delay  I  began  to  set  forth  the  imme- 
diate wants  of  our  company ;  to  give  a  history  of 
the  work  already  done ;  to  assure  my  hearers  that 


MY  APPEAL.— WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS.  203 

nothing  was  now  needed  to  secure  our  success  but 
a  few  thousand  dollars  more  for  immediate  use; 
that  ISTew  York  merchants  were  more  interested 
pecuniarily  in  this  result  than  were  any  other  peo- 
ple in  the  Union ;  that  if  they  would  compare  their 
sales  of  goods  to  Kentucky  with  those  to  Ohio, 
they  would  need  no  further  argument  to  show  that 
their  money  interest  was  all  on  the  side  of  making 
Kansas  free ;  that  now  it  was  also  to  be  decided 
whether  we  should  have  freedom  or  slavery  as  our 
national  policy;  that  the  time  for  resolutions  and 
for  the  friendly  discussion  of  this  matter  with 
slave-holders  had  gone  by,  and  that  slavery,  having 
been  organized  by  Calhoun  in  1833  for  offensive 
and  defensive  action,  was  now  proud  and  strong, 
from  its  continued  victories,  and  hostile  to  all 
discussion  and  to  any  compromises ;  that  the  whole 
question  was  a  question  of  strength  and  endurance, 
and  that  the  party  conquering  in  this  struggle 
would  ever  after  govern  the  country.  I  had  come 
to  ask  them  whether  it  should  be  of  freedom  or  of 
slavery.  I  assured  them  of  the  conservative  views 
of  our  company,  and  that  under  all  provocations 
we  should  sustain  the  Government  and  adhere  to 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union ;  and  that  under 
this  protection  there  was  room  enough  for  all  our 
work  and  for  the  triumphant  success  of  the  free- 
State  cause. 

After  my  address,  which  occupied  a  little  more 
than  an  hour,  a  young  man,  tall  and  thin,  arose  and 
began  to  speak  as  follows :  "  Ever  since  my  Castle 
Garden  speech,  you  know  I  have  been  called  a 


204  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Hunker  Whig.  Now,  what  reason  you  had  to  sup- 
pose that  such  a  man  would  care  whether  slavery 
were  extended  or  restricted  I  do  not  know.  There- 
fore I  do  not  know  your  reasons  for  inviting  me  to 
attend  this  meeting.  But  you  did  invite  me,  and 
I  have  come.  I  am  glad  that  I  am  here,  and  I 
thank  you  for  calling  me.  I  have  heard  many 
speeches,  on  many  occasions,  upon  the  slavery  ques- 
tion ;  but  never  until  now  have  I  listened  to  any 
practical  elucidation  of  the  subject.  Like  thou- 
sands of  others,  I  have  been  waiting  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  contend  successfully  against  slavery 
without  violating  the  laws  or  sacrificing  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union.  Such  an  opportunity  is 
now  presented.  I  rejoice  in  it,  and  shall  embrace 
it.  Now,  though  I  am  called  a  '  Hunker  Whig,'  and 
though  I  am  poor,  for  I  am  not  worth  four  thou- 
sand dollars,  I  joyfully  give  my  check  to  the  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company  for  one  thousand  dollars." 

This  speaker  was  William  M.  Evarts.  Only  a 
few  years  ago  he  sent  word  to  me  that  though  he 
seemed  at  the  time  to  lose  his  balance,  when  he 
gave  a  quarter  of  all  he  was  worth  to  the  Boston 
Aid  Company,  he  was  very  willing  to  admit  that  it 
was  the  best  investment  he  ever  made. 

With  such  a  beginning,  success  was  already  cer- 
tain. Other  subscribers  to  the  fund  speedily  fol- 
lowed Mr.  Evarts.  I  addressed  five  meetings  in 
New  York  City  and  as  many  in  Brooklyn.  Most 
of  these  were  called  by  written  invitations  to  gen- 
tlemen who  were  able  to  contribute  to  the  fund 
without  inconvenience.  Henry  H.  Elliott,  George 


ABLE  SUPPORTERS.  205 

"W.  Blunt,  David  Dudley  Field,  Thaddeus  Hyatt, 
Horace  B.  Claflin,  Rollin  Sanf ord,  BowenJc  MacNa- 
mee,  Cyrus  Curtis,  Moses  H.  Grinnell,  E.  D.  Mor- 
gan, D.  Randolph  Martin,  Marshall  O.  Roberts,  and 
many  others,  subscribed  liberally.  H.  B.  Claflin 
and  Rollin  Sanford  at  first  put  down  their  names 
for  one  thousand  dollars  each ;  but  they  attended 
all  the  meetings,  and,  without  further  solicitation, 
each  of  them  raised  his  subscription  to  six  thou- 
sand dollars.  Several  others  followed  this  exam- 
ple. Bowen  &  MacNamee  at  first  subscribed  five 
hundred  dollars,  but  they  raised  this  sum  to  three 
thousand. 

Charles  H.  Branscomb,  of  whom  I  have  already 
spoken,  accompanied  me  in  this  campaign  for  mon- 
ey. He  was  of  great  service  in  preparing  meetings 
by  carrying  invitations,  and  by  speaking  of  the 
condition  of  things  in  Kansas  to  such  as  were  desir- 
ous of  hearing  the  words  of  an  eye-witness. 

One  Friday  evening  we  went  over  to  the  meet- 
ing in  the  vestry  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  church. 
Before  the  meeting  was  opened  Mr.  Beecher  ob- 
served me  in  the  congregation.  We  had  met  sev- 
eral times  in  the  railway-cars,  when  each  was  on 
his  lecturing  tour,  and  had  often  conversed  about 
the  Kansas  fight.  As  soon  as  he  saw  me  he  came 
over  to  my  seat  and  said,  "  Now,  Thayer,  as  soon 
as  this  meeting  is  opened  I  want  you  to  tell  us 
something  about  the  chances  for  Kansas  ;  will  you 
speak?"  I  told  him  that  it  was  my  business  to 
speak  wherever  there  was  anybody  to  hear.  "  How 
long  shall  I  speak?"  "Say  fifteen  minutes."  He 


206  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

then  opened  the  meeting  and  called  upon  me.  I 
began  m  ^address  and  went  on  as  rapidly  as  possi- 
ble for  the  time  allotted,  and  began  to  draw  my 
remarks  to  a  close.  "Go  on,  go  on !"  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  vestry.  I  looked  to  Mr.  Beecher 
inquiringly.  "  Go  on  for  an  hour,"  he  answered. 
Accordingly,  I  continued  my  address  to  the  end  of 
the  meeting.  After  this,  Mr.  Beecher  invited  me 
to  occupy  the  entire  time  of  the  next  Friday  even- 
ing vestry  meeting,  which  I  did.  In  consequence 
of  these  addresses  Mr.  Beecher's  congregation  made 
contributions  of  several  thousand  dollars  to  the 
company. 

One  day  I  received  at  the  Astor  House,  where  I 
was  staying,  an  invitation  to  dine  at  the  house  of  a 
Mr.  Jackson,  on  Bond  Street.  I  accepted  the  invi- 
tation and  went,  though  I  had  never  met  my  host. 
The  invitation,  however,  was  explained  when  I  met 
there  my  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell.  Under 
my  plate  at  dinner  I  found  Mr.  Jackson's  check  for 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  for  one  thousand  dol- 
lars. This,  too,  was  Dr.  Bushnell's  work,  for  Mr. 
Jackson  had  attended  none  of  my  meetings. 

"William  Cullen  Bryant  was  also  a  contributor  to 
the  amount  (I  think)  of  one  thousand  dollars.  The 
columns  of  his  paper,  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
were  ever  open  to  any  appeal  for  the  interests  of 
free  Kansas.  Mr.  Bryant  was  also  ready,  with  his 
own  pen,  to  advance  by  his  logical  and  eloquent 
arguments  the  cause  of  patriotism  and  good  gov- 
ernment, for  which  our  pioneers  were  there  con- 
tending. I  often  called  upon  him  in  his  sanctum, 


WILLIAM   CULLEN  BRYANT.  207 

and  usually  suggested  something  to  be  written 
about.  I  was  never  disappointed,  for  a  suitable 
editorial  was  certain  to  follow  the  interview. 

One  day  I  went  to  Mr.  Bryant  and  said :  "  Since 
the  Evening  Post  is  a  paper  of  the  highest  financial 
authority,  it  seems  to  me,  Mr.  Bryant,  that  you 
can  very  much  aid  our  Kansas  cause  by  attacking 
the  credit  of  Missouri.  Why,  more  than  the  Yank- 
tons  and  Sioux,  is  she  worthy  of  being  trusted?" 
Mr.  Bryant  expressed  great  interest  in  this  view  of 
the  case,  and  said  that  he  would  attend  to  it.  It 
was  my  purpose  to  make  the  holders  of  Missouri 
bonds  active  in  preventing  the  invasions  and  out- 
rages of  the  border  ruffians.  The  very  next  day 
Mr.  Bryant  began  his  editorials.  The  following  is 
an  extract  from  his  second  article  on  Missouri 
bonds.  Many  others  followed. 

New  York  Evening  Post,  February  14,  1856. 
Editorial  headed  "Missouri  Credit,"  after  stating 
that  "immediately  after  the  invasion  of  Kansas 
the  Missouri  stocks  began  to  decline,"  continues : 

"It  will  be  for  the  better  part  of  the  people  of  Missouri  to 
consider  -whither  this  new  code  of  political  morals  is  carrying 
them.  They  have  a  large  debt  on  their  hands,  either  already 
contracted,  or  authorized  and  in  the  way  of  being  contracted — 
the  absolute  debt  of  their  State  amounting  to  sixteen  millions  of 
dollars,  and  the  bonds  for  which  the  State  is  security,  on  account 
of  the  south-west  branch  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  amounting  to 
three  millions  more.  There  are  nearly  four  millions  and  a  half 
of  bonds  yet  to  be  issued,  and  the  State  throws  them  into  the 
market  with  this  serious  drawback  on  its  credit — its  six  per  cent, 
stocks  down  to  86,  while  those  of  Ohio,  with  almost  the  same 
amount  of  debt  on  her  hands,  stand  at  110. 

"Let  there  be  another  inroad  made  into  Kansas  on  a  like  er- 


208  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

rand  with  that  which  took  that  direction  last  November,  and  the 
credit  of  Missouri  would  siuk  yet  lower.  Capitalists  would  then 
as  soon  think  of  taking  the  bonds  issued  by  authority  of  a  coun- 
cil of  the  Digger  Indians,  or  buying  stock  issued  by  the  chief  of 
the  Pawnees.  Men  who  have  no  regard  for  the  rights  of  others 
cannot  be  expected  to  pay  their  debts. 

"  The  city  of  St.  Louis  contains  a  class  of  merchants  of  the 
highest  character  for  probity.  They,  no  doubt,  hold  the  reputa- 
tion of  their  State  dear,  and  they  certainly  have  a  great  stake  in 
its  prosperity.  They  must  feel  acutely  the  disgrace  which  the 
course  of  a  certain  class  of  their  population  has  brought  upon 
the  State — they  must  be  sensible  to  what  extent  the  material  in- 
terests of  Missouri  are  dependent  upon  the  good  opinion  of  man- 
kind, and  how  deeply  the  interests  of  their  own  flourishing  city 
are  involved  in  those  of  the  State.  It  will  be  for  them,  and  for 
those  who,  like  them,  are  aware  of  the  mischief,  to  devise  the 
remedy." 

The  effect  of  these  editorials  of  Mr.  Bryant  was 
to  cause  a  rapid  decline  in  Missouri  bonds. 

By  such  writing,  a  great  commotion  was  made, 
not  only  among  the  bond-holders,  who  immediately 
demanded  that  the  outrages  against  Kansas  should 
be  discontinued  without  delay,  but  also  among  the 
merchants  of  St.  Louis,  many  of  whom  were  men 
of  high  character,  who  keenly  felt  the  disgrace  of 
their  State.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  good  effect  of 
these  articles  in  restraining  the  lawlessness  of  the 
Missouri  border.  They  seem  also  to  have  had  a  pow- 
erful political  effect  in  St.  Louis,  for  at  the  next  elec- 
tion, to  the  surprise  of  everybody,  that  city  elected, 
for  the  first  time,  a  mayor  friendly  to  free  Kansas. 

"While  still  engaged  in  my  pecuniary  work,  I 
went  one  Sunday  to  attend  the  meeting  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Frothingham.  As  soon  as  the  reverend  gen- 
tleman had  ascended  the  platform  and  observed 


H.  B.  CLAFLIX  AND  OTHERS.  209 

me,  he  came  to  my  seat  and  said,  "  Mr.  Thayer,  I 
want  my  people  to  hear  all  about  Kansas,  and  I 
want  you  to  occupy  every  minute  of  the  time  al- 
lowed for  my  sermon,  which  will  be  all  ready  for 
use  one  week  later."  I  thankfully  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  occupied  his  entire  hour.  This  was 
a  help  to  our  cause  of  about  one  thousand  dollars. 

A  dozen  years  after  the  events  above  recorded, 
Mr.  H.  B.  Claflin  said  that  the  six  thousand  dollars 
which  he  paid  to  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  in 
1856  had  been  several  times  repaid  by  the  excess 
of  profit  on  goods  sold  to  merchants  in  Kansas  and 
Kansas  City  over  what  it  would  have  been  if 
slavery  had  prevailed  in  that  State. 

Since  writing  the  above  I  have  found  the  follow- 
ing circular  of  invitation,  which  furnishes  the  names 
of  several  other  contributors.  To  these  should  be 
added  the  names  of  G.  P.  Putnam  and  Parke  God- 
win: 

"  NEW  YORK,  January  17, 1856. 

"SiK, — You  are  respectfully  invited  to  attend  a  meeting  of 
gentlemen  to  be  held  at  the  small  chapel  of  the  University,  on 
Monday,  the  21st  inst,  at  7.30P.M.,  for  the  purpose  of  consider- 
ing the  interests  involved  in  the  settlement  of  Kansas. 

"Mr.  Thayer,  of  Massachusetts,  will  present  a  full  statement  of 
the  present  condition  of  the  settlements  in  that  Territory,  and  of 
the  movements  hitherto  made  and  now  in  progress  for  promoting 
emigration  under  the  auspices  of  the  'Emigrant  Aid  Society';  and 
the  claim  of  the  cause  upon  the  countenance  and  aid  of  our  citi- 
zens will  be  advocated  by  that  gentleman  and  others.  Yours  re- 
spectfully, 

"  CYRUS  CURTIS,  BENJAMIN  W.  BONNET, 

MOSES  H.  GRINNELL,    LE  GRAND  LOCKWOOD, 
GEORGE  W.  BLUNT,      JOHN  BIGELOW, 
SIMEON  DRAPER,          WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS." 


210  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Frederic  Law  Olmstead  contributed,  and  sent  to 
the  free-State  men  in  Kansas,  a  brass  howitzer, 
which  was  of  great  service,  and  is  still  preserved  as 
a  memento  of  the  great  conflict. 

Early  in  April,  having  succeeded  in  raising  suffi- 
cient money  to  answer  the  purposes  of  the  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company,  I  returned  to  my  proper  work 
of  raising  colonies. 

I  had  scarcely  entered  upon  this  work  when  af- 
fairs in  Kansas  had  assumed  a  new  phase.  Charles 
Robinson,  G.  W.  Brown,  and  several  other  leaders 
of  the  free-State  party  had  been  arrested  for  trea- 
son and  imprisoned.  The  Missouri  River  was  soon 
closed  to  our  emigrant  parties  and  some  of  these 
who  had  nearly  reached  Kansas  were  robbed  of 
their  property  and  sent  back  down  the  river. 
These  were  heroic  measures  on  the  part  of  the 
pro-slavery  party. 

The  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Robinson  and  the 
others  were  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  provok- 
ing the  free-State  men  to  fight  the  United  States 
troops  who  were  guarding  the  prisoners,  in  order 
to  secure  their  rescue.  The  makers  of  this  plot  very 
wisely  left  James  H.  Lane,  John  Brown,  and  James 
Montgomery  free,  so  that  they  might  undertake 
this  work  against  the  Government. 

Lane  immediately  set  about  preparing  for  the 
"rescue."  He  went  even  to  Ohio  to  raise  men 
for  that  purpose.  In  August  he  returned  to  Law- 
rence alone,  after  having  promised  to  raise  fifty 
thousand  men  in  Ohio  and  Indiana.  He  still  cher- 
ished, however,  the  purpose  of  "  rescue,"  and  sent 


BORDER  RUFFIANS  DESPERATE.  211 

a  letter  to  Kobinson  offering  to  set  him  free  by 
force.  Kobinson  very  plainly  gave  him  to  under- 
stand that  he  had  better  mind  his  own  business. 
On  the  10th  of  September  the  prisoners  were  lib- 
erated, and  the  danger  of  attempted  rescue  had 
passed  away. 

There  was  also  a  raid  upon  Lawrence  in  May. 
The  company's  large  stone  hotel  was  burned,  print- 
ing-presses destroyed,  and  much  private  property 
ruined  or  stolen.  This  infamous  work  was  done 
under  the  direction  of  a  court  to  destroy  certain 
buildings  as  nuisances. 

Taken  all  in  all,  the  recent  action  of  the  slave- 
holders was  proof  to  every  sound  mind  that  their 
era  of  utter  desperation  had  arrived.  I  could  then 
plainly  foresee  the  end  of  the  conflict.  So,  happy 
as  the  Apostle  Paul  when  he  came  in  sight  of  the 
three  taverns,  like  him  I  "  thanked  God  and  took 
courage."  So  far  in  this  contest,  the  slave-holders 
had  accomplished  nothing  whatever  by  fair  means. 
Disheartened  and  disgusted,  they  tried  the  impris- 
onment of  our  leaders,  hoping  that  the  free-State 
men,  under  such  a  provocation,  might  become  reb- 
els and  fight  the  Government.  The  wisdom  and 
coolness  of  Robinson  prevented  this  action  and 
made  the  whole  plan  an  utter  failure.  The  raid 
upon  Lawrence  and  the  blockade  of  the  Missouri 
River,  added  to  the  false  imprisonment  of  our  lead- 
ing men,  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  North  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  freedom  of  Kansas  was 
secure.  From  this  time  no  further  effort  was  re- 
quired to  raise  colonies.  They  raised  themselves. 


213  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Matters  had  now  taken  such  form  in  Kansas  and 
the  North  that  the  slave  power  could  not  escape 
defeat. 

It  was  necessary  only  to  give  to  the  free  States 
such  machinery  as  would  enable  them  to  execute 
their  will,  and  the  fate  of  slavery  would  be  sealed 
and  freedom  made  national. 

To  secure  and  put  into  operation  such  machinery, 
I  began  to  write  letters  to  the  Kansas  leagues  that 
there  must  be  a  convention  of  delegates  to  elect  a 
National  Kansas  Committee,  whose  location  should 
be  Chicago,  and  that  another  suitable  committee 
should  be  chosen  to  organize  the  free  States  for 
supplying  the  first  committee  with  money,  arms, 
clothing,  transportation,  and  all  that  the  reasonable 
wants  of  the  pioneers,  upon  their  journey  or  in  the 
Territory,  might  require.  The  convention  was  also 
to  provide  a  passage  through  Iowa  and  Nebraska 
for  several  colonies  now  wearily  marching  over 
that  long  and  tiresome  route. 

This  plan  was  assented  to,  and  the  time  and 
place  of  the  convention  set  for  June  20th,  at  Cleve- 
land. Hon.  William  Barnes  was  to  attend  to  the 
matter  if  any  change  was  found  necessary  as  to 
time  or  place.  It  was  desired  that  Governor  Reed- 
er,  who  had  escaped  from  Kansas,  should  preside 
at  this  convention.  But,  unfortunately,  he  could 
not  get  there  until  the  26th  of  June.  Of  this  Mr. 
Barnes  informed  me.  It  was  impossible  for  me  to 
attend  the  convention  at  that  time,  and  I  therefore 
replied  to  him  as  follows : 


CLEVELAND   CONVENTION.  213 

"  WORCESTER,  June  20, 1356. 

"Mr.  Barnes: 

"DEAR  SIR, — Much  to  my  regret,  I  shall  be  unable  to  attend 
the  convention  at  Cleveland  on  the  26th,  as  I  had  previously  en- 
gaged to  speak  in  Philadelphia  on  the  evening  of  the  27th.  I 
will  submit  to  you  a  few  suggestions  : 

"  The  general  outfitting  depot  should  be  in  Chicago. 

"There  should  also  be  in  that  place  the  treasurer,  two  secre- 
taries, and  a  majority  or  a  quorum  of  the  board  of  directors. 

"There  should  be  an  assistant  treasurer  and  secretary  and 
board  of  directors  in  each  free  State,  and  subsidiary  organizations 
of  a  similar  kind  in  every  city  and  important  town. 

"  These  town  and  city  organizations  should  report  to  the  State 
organization,  and  the  State  organization  should  report  to  the 
Central. 

"  The  State  or  assistant  treasurer  should  forward  all  moneys 
not  appropriated  in  outfits  for  the  emigrants  from  their  individual 
States  to  the  general  treasury  at  Chicago,  to  be  applied  under  the 
direction  of  the  board,  to  assist  emigrants  in  such  ways  as  they 
may  deem  expedient. 

"  The  president  of  the  Central  Committee  should  be  able  to 
survey  the  whole  field,  and  to  perfect  the  organization  of  each 
State.  Either  he  or  some  one  man  must  have  the  general  direc- 
tion in  the  movement,  and  be  the  controlling  worker  in  giving  it 
form  and  efficiency. 

"  Pardon  me  for  these  suggestions,  and  accept  my  thanks  for 
your  faithful  service  in  the  cause  of  free  Kansas.  I  feel  a  per- 
sonal gratitude  to  you  for  these  labors. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"EM  THAYER. 

"  WM.  BAKNKS,  Esq." 

The  convention  met  at  Cleveland  on  the  26th, 
but  took  no  action  whatever,  except  to  adjourn  to 
meet  in  Buffalo  on  the  9th  of  July.  One  or  two 
speeches,  however,  were  made. 

At  Buffalo,  on  the  9th  of  July,  there  was  a  con- 
vention of  delegates,  representing  Kansas  leagues 
and  committees  in  thirteen  Northern  States.  The 


214  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

writer  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
prepare  the  work  of  the  convention.  He  reported 
just  such  a  national  Kansas  committee  as  he  had 
been  describing  in  his  letters,  and  located  them,  as 
he  had  before  proposed,  at  Chicago.  The  conven- 
tion adopted  the  report  unanimously.  They  also 
sent  Dr.  Howe,  of  Boston,  and  Thaddeus  Hyatt,  of 
New  York  City,  to  take  charge  of  our  emigrants, 
then  in  Iowa,  and  provide  for  their  safe  conduct 
into  Kansas.  To  this  work  these  gentlemen  de- 
voted themselves.  They  found  the  emigrants  in 
the  greatest  poverty  and  disorder,  while  J.  H.  Lane 
was  assuming  to  direct  their  movements.  They 
gave  Lane  very  definite  orders  to  go  away  and 
keep  away.  They  put  Col.  S.  "W.  Eldridge  in 
charge,  and  he  brought  all  the  colonies  safely  into 
the  Territory. 

The  further  work  of  the  Buffalo  Convention  is 
told  in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  of  July  17, 
1856,  in  the  leading  editorial,  as  follows : 

THE  SYSTEMATIC  RELIEF  OP  KANSAS. 

"  The  arrangements  made  last  week  at  the  National  Convention 
at  Buffalo,  of  the  friends  of  Kansas,  for  giving  system  to  the 
general  desire  of  the  Northern  States  to  assist  the  free  men  of 
Kansas,  are  such  as  promise  an  immediate  concentration  of  ac- 
tion and  seem  to  us  to  evince  great  practical  wisdom. 

"For  this  purpose  the  convention  named  the  National  Executive 
Committee,  having  a  quorum  of  its  members  in  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago, to  act  as  a  disbursing  committee  of  the  funds  collected  in 
the  different  parts  of  the  country  for  the  benefit  of  Kansas  settlers 

and  emigrants. 

******* 

"For  the  object,  equally  important,  of  securing  a  universal 
contribution  to  these  funds,  the  convention  adopted  a  measure 


BUFFALO  CONVENTION.  215 

which  also  has  our  decided  approval.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Gerrit 
Smith,  Mr.  Eli  Thayer,  of  this  State,  was  appointed  a  committee 
of  one  to  take  charge  of  the  systematic  organization  of  all  the 
States  friendly  to  Kansas,  for  her  relief.  We  believe  the  conven- 
tion was  wise  in  making  this  committee  consist  of  one  person. 
We  believe  it  particularly  fortunate  in  appointing  Mr.  Thayer  to 
a  duty  which  he  can  discharge  so  efficiently.  The  service  which 
he  has  rendered  to  Kansas,  first,  by  creating  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company,  in  the  face  of  great  depression,  and  next,  by  constant 
public  and  private  appeals  in  behalf  of  Kansas,  is  well  understood 
in  New  England  and  New  York  City.  The  work  now  intrusted 
to  him  is  very  clearly  the  work  for  one  man  and  not  for  many. 

"  We  are  glad  to  be  able  to  announce  this  morning  that  Mr. 
Thayer  has  already  entered  upon  his  work,  with  the  promptness 
which  the  occasion  demands. 

"  He  has  perfected  a  plan  which  may  carry  the  cause  of  Kan- 
sas to  every  hearth-stone  in  the  free  States. 

"  It  proposes  that  there  shall  be  formed  two  classes  of  Kansas 
committees  ;  a  State  Committee  for  every  State,  and  a  County 
Committee  for  every  county.  Some  of  these  committees  already 
exist.  Each  County  Committee  should  then  appoint  a  town 
agent  for  every  town  in  the  county,  with  authority  to  appoint  a 
solicitor  (male  or  female)  for  every  school  district  in  the  town. 
These  district  solicitors  apply  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  if 
possible,  in  their  respective  districts  ;  and  make  returns  of  their 
collections,  with  a  duplicate  of  the  subscription  books,  to  the 
town  agent.  By  applying  to  this  agent,  any  subscriber  can 
ascertain  whether  his  subscription  has  been  duly  forwarded. 
The  town  agents  make  returns  to  the  treasurer  of  the  County 
Committee,  who  makes  regular  returns  to  the  treasurer  of  the 
State  Committee,  who  in  turn  remits  to  the  National  Committee. 

' '  In  this  way  every  cent  contributed  can  be  traced  from  the 
hand  of  the  donor  to  the  treasury  of  the  General  Committee, 
without  any  charge  or  expenses.  And  by  this  plan  the  General 
Committee  deals  only  with  State  Committees,  these  with  County 
Committees,  and  these  only  with  school  districts,  and  they  only 
with  individuals. 

"  If  this  plan  were  faithfully  carried  out,  we  should  have  three 
or  four  millions  of  subscribers  as  the  result,  with  scarcely  any 
expense  for  agencies. 


216  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"  We  publish  these  details,  in  extenso,  thus,  in  the  hope  that 
they  may  be  at  once  copied  through  the  country,  and  that  the 
different  arrangements  may  be  put  at  once  in  motion.  We  hope 
to  announce  soon  that  a  regular  series  of  remittances  to  the  Chi- 
cago National  Committee  has  begun. 

"  We  observed  in  our  report  of  the  Buffalo  Convention  that  a 
member  of  that  convention  expressed  the  feeling  that  Mr.  Thay- 
er's  connection  with  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  would  make  his 
appointment  unpopular  with  the  country.  We  confess  our  sur- 
prise at  this  suggestion.  We  believe  that  the  unanimous  feeling 
of  the  free  States  of  this  Union  towards  that  company,  of  which 
he  is  the  founder,  is  one  of  profound  gratitude  for  its  efforts  at  a 
time  when  every  one  beside  was  in  despair  as  to  the  fate  of 
Kansas. 

"  The  convention  at  Buffalo  would  never  have  existed  had 
not  that  company  acted  when  it  did.  There  would  have  been 
no  free-State  party  in  Kansas  without  it.  There  may  be  many 
men  there  from  the  free  States  who  did  not  go  under  its  auspices, 
but  there  are  very  few  who  did  not  go  influenced  by  the  assur- 
ance that  the  company  gave,  that  Kansas  should  be  free. 

' '  We  can  understand  why  President  Pierce  and  Dr.  Stringf el- 
low  denounce  it ;  but  we  do  not  see  why  the  unpopularity  of  its 
founder  with  them  should  act  in  the  Buffalo  Convention. 

"Mr.  Thayer  defended  the  company  with  spirit  before  the 
convention,  and  the  convention  showed  no  fear  of  its  unpopular- 
ity. He  referred  to  the  enthusiastic  praise  it  has  received  abroad 
and  at  home.  Styled  by  the  London  Times  '  The  greatest 
American  movement  of  this  age/  it  has  been  welcomed  here  by 
our  ablest  statesmen,  scholars,  and  business  men. 

"After  his  speech  no  sort  of  opposition  was  made  to  his  ap- 
pointment ;  and  the  convention  commissioned  him  to  the  work 
we  have  described." 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  National 
Kansas  Committee  elected  by  the  Buffalo  Conven- 
tion :  G.  R.  Kussell,  Boston,  Mass. ;  AY.  H.  Russell, 
Connecticut ;  Thaddeus  Hyatt,  New  York ;  K.  B. 
Craig,  Pennsylvania;  John  W.  Wright,  Indiana; 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Lincoln,  111. ;  E.  B.  Ward,  Mich- 


NATIONAL  COMMITTEE.  217 

igan ;  Hon.  J.  H.  Tweedy,  "Wisconsin  ;  Gov.  "W.  H. 
Hoppin,  Khode  Island ;  W.  II.  Stanley,  Ohio ;  F.  A. 
Hunt,  Missouri ;  S.  "W.  Eldridge,  Kansas  Territory ; 
and  G.  W.  Dole,  J.  D.  Webster,  H.  B.  Hurd,  J.  Y. 
Scammon,  and  J.  K.  Fernold  of  Chicago,  111. ;  J.  H. 
Reeder  was  subsequently  added  to  the  committee. 

The  National  Kansas  Committee  was  organized 
without  delay  by  the  election  of  Thaddeus  Hyatt 
of  New  York  City  as  president.  Mr.  Hyatt  de- 
voted himself  to  his  work  with  great  fidelity,  cour- 
age, and  persistency.  He  several  times  visited 
Kansas  to  learn  the  needs  of  the  settlers,  and  su- 
pervised the  disbursement  of  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  dollars. 

In  reply  to  my  inquiries  concerning  his  Kansas 
work,  and  its  pecuniary  cost  to  himself,  I  have  just 
received  a  letter  from  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : 

"  In  one  way  and  another,  counting  contingent  losses,  tbe  cost 
to  me  of  making  Kansas  a  free  State  was  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  I  travelled  in  behalf  of  her  people  a  hundred  thousand 
miles  on  the  railways  of  the  country  at  my  own  expense.  This 
includes  the  famine  time,  and  covers  the  period  from  1855  to 
1861. 

"  From  the  moment  when  the  magnetism  of  your  eloquence 
and  logic  drew  from  my  finger  a  five  hundred  dollar  ring  for  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  I  was  committed  to  the  cause.  If  I 
obtained  prominence  in  the  work  it  was  not  of  my  own  seeking. 
I  was  shoved  forward  by  events  as  one  is  moved  onward  in  a 
crowd.  I  hope  you  will  do  full  justice  to  my  friends  Samuel 
C.  Pomeroy  and  W.  F.  M.  Arny.  .  .  .  There  were  none  more  de- 
voted and  none  more  true." 

Long  after  the  freedom  of  Kansas  had  become 
secure,  Mr.  Hyatt  and  his  friends  Arny  and  Pome- 
10 


218  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

roy,  together  with  the  National  Kansas  Committee, 
continued  their  work,  furnishing  such  supplies  as 
the  pioneers  most  needed.  In  the  year  of  the  fam- 
ine, with  their  facilities  for  reaching  the  Northern 
people,  and  with  their  disbursing  agents  in  Kansas, 
their  services  were  of  the  greatest  importance.  A 
full  record  of  their  work  can  be  seen  in  the  publi- 
cations of  the  Kansas  State  Historical  Society,  To- 
peka,  vols.  i.  and  ii.,  1875-1880. 

The  plan  for  organizing  the  free  States  in  sup- 
port of  this  committee  was  soon  perfected  and  put 
into  practice.  Little  subscription-books  were  pre- 
pared for  school  districts,  and  contributions  of 
dimes  or  dollars  were  solicited,  mainly  by  ladies. 
In  Worcester  County,  Massachusetts,  six  hundred 
of  these  books  were  distributed  —  one  for  every 
school  district.  In  the  State,  six  thousand  were  in 
use.  The  funds,  with  duplicates  of  all  subscription- 
books,  were  sent  to  the  town  committee,  who  re- 
ported to  the  county  committee,  who  reported  to 
the  State  committee;  the  latter  making  their  re- 
turns to  the  National  Kansas  Committee  at  Chi- 
cago. There  was  no  chance  for  the  loss  of  even 
one  penny.  The  Fremont  clubs  were  also  supplied 
with  these  little  books,  and  by  all  these  agencies 
almost  every  hearth-stone  in  the  free  States  was 
reached. 

Now  came  on,  in  all  its  vehemence,  the  Presiden- 
tial campaign.  Governor  Geary  was  sent  to  Kan- 
sas. He  told  the  Missourians  that  one  more  raid 
into  Kansas  would  defeat  Buchanan.  The  Mis- 
souri bond-holders  and  the  St.  Louis  merchants  re- 


GLEAMS  OF  LIGHT.  219 

inforced  the  arguments  of  Governor  Geary.  The 
border  ruffians  were  "between  the  devil  and  the 
deep  sea."  They  knew  something  at  this  time  of 
the  dismal  straits  of  Poe's  unfortunate, 

"Whom  unmerciful  disaster 
Followed  fast  and  followed  faster." 

The  Missouri  Kiver  was  opened,  and  our  emi- 
grants resumed  the  old  and  much  more  convenient 
route.  The  black  and  direful  clouds  which  for 
three  years  had  hung  over  the  border  of  Kansas, 
charged  with  ruin  and  death,  began  to  break,  and 
to  show  fitful  gleams  of  welcome  light  through 
their  ragged  openings. 

But  everywhere  the  campaign  orators  in  favor 
of  Fremont  had  one  grand  and  comprehensive  ar- 
gument. "  Elect  Fremont  or  lose  Kansas  and  be 
forever  slaves." 

I  was  nominated  for  Congress  in  the  Worcester 
district  and  elected.  Called  before  the  nominating 
convention  to  make  a  speech,  upon  accepting  the 
nomination,  I  frankly  said  that  I  should  never  as- 
sent to  this  nonsense  everywhere  promulgated  by 
the  Fremont  orators;  that  his  defeat  would  be 
chains  and  slavery  for  Kansas ;  that  this  was  the 
people's  fight  against  slavery,  and  not  the  fight  of 
the  politicians,  that  nearly  twice  as  many  men 
were  determined  Kansas  should  be  free  as  would 
cast  their  votes  for  Fremont ;  that  Kansas  would 
be  free  whether  Fremont,  Buchanan,  or  the  devil 
was  President. 

Had  Fremont  been  elected,  the  politicians  would 


220  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

have  claimed,  to  this  day,  that  the  salvation  of 
Kansas  was  by  that  event  secured.  People  gener- 
ally had  been  educated  to  hope  for  nothing  on  the 
slavery  question  that  did  not  come  to  them  through 
the  wisdom  of  Congressional  or  Executive  action. 
The  ordinance  of  1787,  which  was  inoperative  in 
practice,  and  null  and  void  in  law,  has  always  been 
paraded  by  politicians  as  the  great  cause  of  free- 
dom in  the  five  powerful  States  made  from  the 
north-west  territory.  It  is  natural  for  most  men, 
especially  for  politicians,  to  magnify  their  office. 
The  North-west  was  made  free  because  her  hardy 
pioneers  desired  her  to  be  free.  She  would  never 
have  been  any  less  free  if  the  boasted  ordinance  of 
1787  had  never  been  heard  of. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  division  of  opinion 
upon  the  slavery  question.  North  and  South  alike 
regarded  the  institution  as  a  calamity  and  a  curse. 
The  leaders  of  Southern  thought  denounced  it  in 
more  determined  and  vigorous  language  than  was 
heard  from  the  lips  of  Northern  speakers,  or  read 
from  the  columns  of  Northern  journals.  All  this 
harmony  of  feeling  between  the  different  sections 
rendered  impossible  any  serious  antagonism  on  this 
subject  in  the  North-west. 

But  when  the  Kansas  struggle  came,  the  old  har- 
mony had  entirely  disappeared.  "While  for  thirty 
years  after  the  ordinance  of  1787  it  had  remained 
unchanged,  it  began  to  be  disturbed  by  the  admis- 
sion of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State,  and  thirteen  years 
later  was  utterly  destroyed  by  the  Southern  policy 
of  Calhoun.  Having  attempted  in  vain  to  com- 


CALHOUN'S  WORK.  221 

bine  the  South  against  the  tariff,  he  succeeded  in 
securing  a  perfect  union  in  favor  of  slavery.  The 
same  institution  whose  existence  had  so  long  been 
deplored  by  the  South  as  a  burden  and  a  curse 
which  all  should  labor  to  remove,  began  then  to  be 
applauded  as  ordained  of  God,  sustained  by  the 
Bible,  and  well  adapted  to  secure  the  highest  de- 
velopment of  both  the  white  and  negro  races.  The 
slave-holders,  who  formerly  were  willing  to  reason 
upon  methods  for  its  extinction,  had  now  become 
haughty,  arrogant,  and  imperious.  Nothing  now 
was  acceptable  to  them  but  the  unrestricted  exten- 
sion of  their  cherished  institution.  Any  man  who 
in  the  slightest  degree  opposed  their  views  was 
denounced  as  an  Abolitionist.  Such  was  the  tone 
and  temper  of  the  slave-holders  when  they  de- 
manded and  secured  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  All  talk,  all  reasoning,  all  entreaty, 
on  the  part  of  the  North  was  treated  with  scorn 
and  contempt.  The  time  had  therefore  fully  come 
to  humble  this  insolent  and  usurping  power.  The 
Crusade  of  Freedom  did  this  work  and  drove 
slavery  through  desperation  to  death.  But  this 
was  a  work  in  which,  fortunately,  politicians  had 
no  hand  and  exercised  no  power.  The  people 
made  this  fight  for  freedom  and  carried  it  through 
to  triumphant  success. 

In  all  my  journeys  I.  never  met  members  of  Con- 
gress, or  any  prominent  politicians,  who  had  made 
speeches  to  raise  colonies  for  Kansas.  Trusting 
only  in  the  Congressional  restriction  of  slavery, 
they  doubtless  believed,  as  they  had  often  said,  that 


222  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Kansas  was  lost.  The  strong  arms  of  free  labor 
rescued  her  and  proved  their  power  to  protect  all 
the  rights  and  interests  of  free  men.  The  motto 
of  Miles  Standish  was  here  well  applied  :  "  If  you 
want  a  thing  well  done,  do  it  yourself."  The  Kan- 
sas work  was  done  by  the  people  for  themselves, 
and  history  will  say  that  it  was  "  well  done." 

With  the  steadiness  of  a  planet  moving  in  its 
orbit,  this  great  crusade  advanced  for  three  years 
constantly  and  persistently  towards  its  final  tri- 
umph. It  united  all  the  free  States  in  a  common 
purpose  to  destroy  slavery.  In  its  management 
there  was  no  retreating,  no  hesitation,  no  uncer- 
tainty. Under  the  shield  of  the  Constitution  we 
pressed  forward  to  certain  victory.  I  have  called 
this  decisive  movement  "  a  crusade."  Very  likely 
historians  will  call  it  "a  campaign."  But  under 
whatever  name,  its  majestic  pOAver,  moral  gran- 
deur, and  far-reaching  results  have  strongly  mark- 
ed a  new  epoch  in  our  history. 

At  the  end  of  1856  I  left  the  Kansas  work  and 
began  the  colonizing  of  Virginia.  We  had  tri- 
umphed in  the  great  conflict  with  such  exuberance 
of  strength  that  we  had  in  Kansas  four  free-State 
men  to  every  one  of  our  opponents ;  while  our 
numbers  were  rapidly  increasing,  and  theirs  con- 
stantly diminishing.  Buford  and  his  Southern  sol- 
diers had  returned  to  Alabama.  Other  Southern 
battalions  had  retired  to  the  sunny  fields  of  their 
homes.  Atchison  and  Stringfellow  had  given  up 
the  fight.  It  now  remained  for  the  free-State  men 
of  Kansas  to  restore  order,  and  to  build  upon  the 


EMINENT  HELPERS. 


223 


ruins  of  the  past  that  unrivalled  commonwealth 
whose  proud  history  has  made  her  the  pivotal  State 
of  our  destiny,  as  she  is  of  our  geography.  One  of 
my  last  speeches  on  Kansas  was  made  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  December  17, 1856. 

The  following  call,  thought  necessary  because 
there  was  but  two  days'  notice  of  the  meeting, 
serves  still  further  to  show  what  kind  of  men  sus- 
tained the  Emigrant  Aid  Company : 

"HON.  ELI  THAYER,  of  Worcester,  will  address  the  ladies 
and  gentlemen  of  Cambridge  in  Lyceum  Hall,  on  MONDAY 
EVENING  next,  17th  inst.,  at  7  1-2  o'clock,  on  the  question  now 
at  issue  in  Kansas,  and  will  propose  a  method  for  its  solution,  to 
which  he  earnestly  invites  the  attention  and  co-operation  not 
only  of  the  friends  of  Freedom  and  the  Union,  but  of  civilization 
and  Christianity. 

WM.  L.  WHITNEY, 
C.  C.  FELTON, 
J.  E.  WORCESTER, 
EMORY  WASHBURN, 
GEORGE  LIVERMORE, 


"JACOB  H.  BATES, 
S.  T.  FARWELL, 
JOEL  PARKER, 
H.  W.  LONGFELLOW, 
CHARLES  BECK, 
A.  WILLARD, 
EPHRAIM  BUTTRICK, 
F.  L.  CHAPMAN, 
WM.  T.  RICHARDSON, 
C.  FRANCIS, 
JOHN  PRYOR, 
Jos.  T.  BUCKINGHAM, 


A.  H.  RAMSAY, 
JOHN  G.  PALFREY, 
WM.  A.  SAUNDERS, 
J.  A.  ALBRO, 
WM.  NEWELL, 
F.  D.  HUNTINGTON, 
CHARLES  R.  METCALF, 


JOSIAH  COOLIDGE." 

The  following  editorial  is  from  the  Cambridge 
Chronicle  of  December  22, 1856  : 

"After  Professor  Hedrick's  remarks,  it  was  a  relief  when  the 
broad,  calm  brow  of  Mr.  Thayer  loomed  up  before  us.  We  were 
requested  not  to  report  his  speech,  and  shall  therefore  only  speak 
of  it  in  general  terms.  It  was  more  even  than  we  hoped  for, 


234  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

and  whether  considered  as  a  speech  or  as  an  argument,  was  a 
powerful  effort.  Such  a  deep  penetration  into  and  entire  grasp 
of  his  subject,  such  aptness  of  expression,  and  illustration  we 
seldom  find.  The  views  he  took  have  not  been  presented  by  the 
press  or  public  speakers — they  are  new  to  the  people;  but  un- 
questionably sound,  as  they  are  hopeful  to  freedom;  and  as  he 
presented  them  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  were  convincing  to 
his  audience. 

"For  ourselves,  we  never  had  any  sympathy  with  those  who 
fear  the  downfall  of  freedom.  We  have  supposed  that,  as  here- 
tofore, our  liberties  might  yet '  cost  treasure  and  cost  blood,'  but 
we  could  not  doubt  the  triumph  of  freedom  over  slavery,  and  of 
every  right  over  every  wrong.  Mr.  Thayer  shows  clearly  enough 
that  freedom  will  not  only  triumph,  but  that  it  will  triumph  with 
an  insignificant  cost  of  blood,  and  an  actual  augmentation  of 
treasure.  He  proposes  to  make  a  profitable  business  of  coloniz- 
ing Kansas;  and  indicates  the  way  in  which  even  the  old  slave- 
holding  States  may  be  also  colonized  by  freedom ;  and  slavery — 
that  unsubstantial  thing,  which  we  have  always  tried  to  keep  at 
a  distance  from  us,  and  shrunk  from  as  from  a  monster  with 
demon  teeth  and  claws — retire  and  vanish  before  it  as  mists  of 
night  before  the  morning  sun. 

"  It  might  be  supposed,  he  observed  in  commencing,  that  the 
Presidential  election  had  decided  the  question  of  the  freedom  of 
Kansas.  No  more,  said  he,  than  the  last  eclipse  of  the  moon 
decided  it.  The  freedom  of  the  country  was  involved  in  the 
freedom  of  Kansas.  Would  freedom,  which  is  a  true  thing,  fail, 
and  slavery,  which  is  a  false  thing,  succeed?  Never.  Slavery 
was  inherently  weak;  it  could  not  compete  with  freedom.  It 
was  on  this  idea  that  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Society 
was  formed  and  chartered.  Their  policy  was  to  set  freedom  to 
compete  with  slavery,  by  controlling  the  tide  of  emigration  ever 
setting  Westward,  and  organizing  its  force  in  Kansas.  Formerly 
freedom  went  into  new  Territories  as  an  infant — its  forces  feeble, 
few,  and  scattered.  A  settler  went  here  and  another  there,  plant- 
ed themselves  in  the  wilderness,  and  waited  eight,  ten,  or  twenty 
years  for  civilization  to  come  up  to  them.  But  into  the  Terri- 
tory of  Kansas  freedom  was  to  be  sent  a  full-grown  man — its 
forces  organized  and  concentrated,  and  its  institutions  in  all  the 
perfection  they  have  attained  here.  Every  colony  planted  by 


J.  M.  S.  WILLIAMS.  225 

the  society  was  provided  with  a  church,  a  school,  and  a  steam- 
engine.  Slavery  could  not  stand  before  these  things.  Wher- 
ever the  steam-engine  went,  liberty  would  prevail.  An  ordinary, 
dull  man  seeing  one  of  those  pioneers  of  freedom  going  up  the 
Missouri  would  say,  '  There  goes  a  steam-engine,  probably  so 
many  horse-power,  weighs  so  many  tons.'  David  R.  Atchison 

seeing  it,  says,  '  There  goes  another  d d  Abolition  city  into 

Kansas!' 

"  Why,  the  steam-engine  was  a  singer  and  would  sing  of  noth- 
ing but  freedom.  Set  it  to  sawing  pine  logs  into  boards,  and  it 
would  sing  at  its  work  day  and  night,  '  Home  for  the  free ! — home 
for  the  free!'  Set  it  to  sawing  tough,  gnarled  oak,  and  its  song 
would  be,  'Never  a  slave  State! — never  a  slave  State!' 

"The  applause  of  the  audience  testified  that  there  was  both 
truth  and  poetry  in  the  figure. 

"  Mr.  Thayer  paid  a  deserved  compliment  to  our  fellow-citizen, 
J.  M.  S.  Williams,  Esq.  He  was  the  first  man,  he  said,  who  gave 
him  any  encouragement  in  Boston.  When  he  was  laboring  to 
present  his  views  to  the  people  of  that  city,  and  had  labored 
long,  seemingly  in  vain,  Mr.  Williams  came  forward  and  offered 
$10,000  in  aid  of  the  enterprise;  and  it  was  through  his  influence 
With  the  business  men  of  Boston  that  the  plan  of  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Society  at  last  got  a  hearing  and  met  with  success." 
10* 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WHAT   SAVED   KANSAS. 

IT  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  present  a 
summary  of  the  evidence,  both  of  friends  and  foes, 
that  the  Plan  of  Freedom  saved  Kansas  and  over- 
threw slavery. 

Some  of  the  following  evidence  is  recent,  and 
some  contemporaneous  with  the  great  contest  on 
the  prairies ;  some  of  it  is  from  hostile,  and  some 
from  friendly  sources.  The  reader  will  observe, 
however,  that  all  agree  upon  one  point — that  there 
was  only  one  obstruction  in  the  way  of  slavery  in 
Kansas,  and  that  was  "  the  new  science  of  emigra- 
tion," together  with  the  skill  and  energy  with 
which  this  new  force  was  directed  and  utilized. 

Some  of  these  articles  are  in  reply  to  remarks  in 
the  Century  Magazine  by  Mcolay  and  Hay  in  their 
Life  of  Lincoln,  in  which  they  disparage  the  work 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 

The  complete  refutation  of  their  views  can  be 
found  in  the  recent  editorials  now  quoted,  but  espe- 
cially in  that  of  Horace  Greeley,  written  early  in 
the  Kansas  conflict,  and  recorded  in  the  New  York 
Iribune  of  September  6, 1854,  as  follows  : 

"The  Douglas  Bill  had  hardly  passed  before  a  crowd  of  Mis- 
souri slave-holders  rushed  over  into  Kansas,  began  staking  out 


TRIBUNE.— WORCESTER  SPY.  227 

and  claiming  all  the  best  lands,  and  held  meetings  to  denounce 
and  threaten  all  'Northern  Abolitionists'  who  should  venture 
into  that  region.  There  have  been  several  such  meetings  held 
in  Kansas  or  in  the  Missouri  villages  along  her  frontier.  In 
every  one,  the  resolves  of  the  slave-holders  are  enforced  by  a 
meaning  reference  to  the  bowie-knife  and  rifle,  as  the  favorite 
arguments  of  their  caste.  Individual  settlers  from  the  free 
States  would  have  been  deterred,  or  intimidated  into  acquies- 
cence by  these  demonstrations.  It  is  only  by  organization  and 
concert  that  the  North  has  been  able  to  defy  them.  If  Kansas 
is  saved  to  freedom  (as  we  trust  it  will  be),  she  will  owe  her  es- 
cape to  agitation,  activity,  resolute  effort — in  short,  to  those  very 
measures  which  the  Richmond  Whig  condemns  and  would  have 
us  desist  from.  In  fact,  for  the  last  half-century  we  have  lost 
Louisiana,  Florida,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Texas  by  PEACE,  and 
saved  all  we  have  saved  by  effort,  resistance,  and  agitation.  And 
now  that  Cuba,  Hayti,  Mexico,  Dominica,  Central  America,  and 
the  Sandwich  Islands  are  all  within  the  contemplation  of  the 
slave  power,  as  subjects  of  more  or  less  immediate  annexation, 
it  behooves  us  to  stand  to  our  arms  and  let  our  resolution  be  dis- 
tinctly understood.  We  shall  never  more  have  lasting  peace 
until  it  is  settled  that  no  more  slave  States  are  to  be  added  to  our 
Union.  With  that  point  settled,  we  shall  have  peace  with  our 
neighbors  and  peace  among  ourselves.  We  shall  buy  or  steal  no 
more  territory  from  the  moment  it  is  fixed  that  all  States  hence- 
forth added  to  the  Union  must  come  in  as  free  States.  We  en- 
treat the  Wliig,  therefore,  to  rest  assured  that  we  not  only  love 
peace  as  well  as  the  South  can,  but  that  we  are  taking  the  only 
way  to  secure  it." 

Editorial  of  the  Worcester  Spy  of  May  4,  1887, 
in  answer  to  Nicolay  and  Hay : 

"To  those  who  remember  the  struggle  between  the  forces  of 
slavery  and  freedom,  the  North  and  the  South,  for  the  possession 
of  Kansas,  it  seems  almost  superfluous  for  Mr.  Eli  Thayer  to  con- 
tradict the  assertions  of  Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  the  biographers 
of  Lincoln  in  the  Century  Magazine,  that  the  Massachusetts  Emi- 
grant Aid  Society  had  but  small  influence  upon  the  result  of  that 
contest,  and  that  '  the  North  in  general  trusted  to  the  ordinary 


228  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

and  natural  movement  of  emigration.'  Mr.  Tlmyer  has  shown 
conclusively  that  this  is  a  grave  error,  pardonable,  perhaps,  in  a 
writer  who  should  refer  to  the  subject  incidentally,  but  inexcus- 
able in  one  who  professes  to  write  authentic  history.  Mr.  Thayer 
proves,  by  unimpeachable  evidence,  that  the  pro-slavery  people, 
from  Missouri,  chiefly,  were  first  in  possession ;  that  they  con- 
trolled all  the  avenues  of  approach  ;  that  they  were  fully  aware 
of  the  importance  of  excluding  free-State  men  and  perfectly  un- 
scrupulous as  to  the  means  of  doing  it;  that  immigrants  from  the 
free  States  encountered  not  only  the  hardships  and  privations 
incidental  to  settlement  in  a  new  country,  but  also  dangers  to 
property  and  life  from  the  persecutions  of  hostile  neighbors, 
whose  prejudices  and  passions  were  inflamed  by  the  press  and 
the  influential  politicians  of  the  South;  that  their  only  protec- 
tion against  these  dangers  was  the  support  of  their  neighbors,  and 
therefore  organized  immigration  in  colonies  was  a  necessity  ; 
that,  in  fact,  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  and  its  auxiliaries  in  all 
the  Northern  States  did  aid  and  direct  in  the  migration  of  thou- 
sands of  colonists,  and  that  the  organs  of  Southern  and  pro- 
slavery  opinion  in  the  press  and  in  Congress,  knowing  all  the 
facts,  and  profoundly  interested  in  the  issue,  attributed  the  peo- 
pling of  Kansas  by  free-State  men  to  the  activity — unlawful  and 
pernicious  activity  they  declared  it — of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society. 
All  this  was  universally  known,  and  no  one  thought  of  disputing 
it  at  the  time.  What  put  it  into  the  heads  of  Lincoln's  biogra- 
phers to  pervert  history  as  they  have  done,  it  is  hard  to  conject- 
ure. Mr.  Thayer's  suggestion  that  one  of  the  important  qualifi- 
cations of  a  historian  is  some  knowledge  of  history  is  severe  in 
its  implication  of  the  deficiencies  of  these  historians,  but  is  not 
undeserved." 

Gen.  Charles  Devens,  in  his  address  before  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association,  on  the  17th  of 
June,  1887,  ably  sustains  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany as  follows : 

"If  left  to  the  laws  of  ordinary  emigration,  the  immediate 
presence  on  the  border  of  Kansas  of  a  prosperous  and  powerful 
slave  State  like  Missouri  would  have  rendered  it  certain  that  she 
would  follow  the  example  of  her  neighbor.  With  different  de- 


GEN.  CHARLES  DEVENS.  229 

grees  of  feeling,  yet  with  substantial  unanimity,  the  North  was 
utterly  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  The  passage  of  such 
a  bill  was  like  throwing  down  a  gauntlet  into  the  arena  of  civil 
controversy,  which  must  be  lifted  or  the  cause  abandoned. 

"  The  most  powerful  individual  agency  in  meeting  the  issue 
thus  forced,  and  in  placing  Kansas  in  the  column  of  free  States, 
was  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  formed  in  Massachusetts,  of 
which  Mr.  Eli  Thayer  was  the  president  and  originator,  and  Mr. 
Lawrence  the  treasurer. 

"Its  plan  was  of  a  peaceful  organized  emigration,  which 
should,  by  the  force  of  the  feeling  and  influence  which  would 
accompany  it,  render  it  impossible  that  slavery  should  enter,  or 
if  it  entered  should  ever  maintain  itself  there.  It  is  not  only  in 
what  this  society  did,  but  in  what  it  induced  others  to  do,  that 
the  value  of  its  work  consisted. 

"Mr.  Lawrence  was  by  nature,  as  well  as  by  political  educa- 
tion, decidedly  conservative  in  his  constitutional  views,  but  he 
had  always  ardently  opposed  the  system  of  slavery.  He  had  felt 
what  at  that  time  weighed  much  on  the  minds  of  many  just  men 
in  both  the  great  national  parties — the  difficulty  of  reconciling 
his  obligations  under  the  Constitution  with  this  opposition.  It 
was  because  the  methods  to  be  employed  by  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company  were  strictly  constitutional  that  they  commended  them- 
selves alike  to  his  judgment  and  his  feeling.  It  is  not  my  inten- 
tion to  recall  the  scenes — terrible  and  bloody,  many  of  them — of 
that  controversy  which  made  of  the  struggle  for  Kansas  a  prel- 
ude to  the  War  for  the  Union.  Had  that  never  occurred,  it  is 
by  no  means  impossible  that  by  confining  slavery  within  fixed 
bounds,  which  would  have  been  ever  narrowing,  the  success  in 
Kansas  might  have  brought  about  the  gradual  extinction  of 
slavery." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  recent  letter 
of  Hon.  Francis  E.  Spinner,  upon  the  same  subject 
as  the  above : 

"  You,  in  your  fight  for  the  vindication  of  the  truth  of  history, 
hold  the  vantage-ground,  for  the  facts  are  all  on  your  side.  Those 
who  were  men  in  1854,  and  who  kept  the  run  of  the  politics  of 
the  country  for  the  next  seven  years,  know  that  your  Emigrant 


230  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Aid  Society  did  more  to  save  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  freedom 
than  all  other  help  and  appliances  combined.  But  to  those  who 
came  after,  and  to  our  posterity,  it  is  well  that  the  truth  should 
be  restated.  The  claim  that  the  Garrison  Abolitionists  abolished 
slavery  is  about  on  a  par  with  that  of  the  ignorant  of  the  Irish, 
that  St.  Patrick  invented  the  potato." 

The  following  is  an  editorial  in  the  Sun,  May  27, 
1887: 

THE  DISUNIONISTS  OF  THE  NORTH. 

"We  referred  a  short  time  ago  to  a  pamphlet  in  which  Mr. 
Eli  Thayer,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  described  the  part  played 
by  organized  immigration  in  the  making  of  Kansas  a  free  State. 
But  it  seems  that  certain  of  the  old  Abolitionists,  and  more  par- 
ticularly Mr.  Oliver  Johnson,  are  offended  because  he  has  as- 
sumed to  take  any  of  the  credit  for  that  result.  They  say  that 
it  was  the  Garrison  host  who  did  the  work,  by  calling  the  people 
to  a  '  moral  fight '  against  slavery. 

"  Mr.  Thayer  thereupon  proceeds  to  give  the  Abolitionists  such 
a  dressing  down  as  they  have  not  received  since  the  days  of  their 
prominence.  He  declares  that  although  '  egotism  never  yet 
equalled  or  approached  their  own,'  they  were  only  marplots  in 
the  struggle  against  slavery;  that  their  real  purpose  was  not  the 
overthrow  of  slavery,  but  the  destruction  of  the  Union.  '  They 
knew,'  says  Mr.  Thayer,  '  if  Kansas  became  a  slave  State,  there 
would  be  quite  an  accession  to  the  disunion  element  of  the 
North,'  and  therefore  'their  fraternity  of  mountebanks  or  mon- 
omaniacs '  derided  the  practical  efforts  of  the  Emigration  Soci- 
ety to  direct  to  Kansas  settlers  who  were  on  the  side  of  freedom; 
'for,  as  T.  W.  Higginson  said,  it  would  only  be  another  Massa- 
chusetts. The  original  Massachusetts  had  been  tried  and  found 
wanting.'  '  Really,'  continues  Mr.  Thayer,  '  these  men  had  noth- 
ing more  to  do  in  accomplishing  the  overthrow  of  slavery  in  this 
country  than  had  the  King  of  the  Cannibal  Islands.' 

"What  the  Abolitionists  were  after  was  the  overthrow  of  the 
Union  because  it  involved  the  toleration  and  protection  of  sla- 
very; and  whatever  made  slavery  more  hateful  to  the  people  of 
the  North  was  received  by  them  with  rejoicing,  for  it  aggravated 
the  ground  of  offence  against  the  South  and  the  feeling  of  dis- 


CHARLES  A.  DANA.  231 

satisfaction  with  the  Union.  The  further  the  slave  power  pro- 
ceeded in  its  aggressions  the  better  were  they  pleased,  for  the 
North  became  the  more  earnest  in  its  resentment,  and  the  hopes 
of  disunion — of  the  breaking  up  of  the  '  compact  with  hell  and 
league  with  death,'  as  they  called  the  Union — grew  stronger  in 
their  breasts. 

"Mr.  Thayer,  be  it  remembered,  was  always  a  bitter  opponent 
of  slavery,  and  at  great  personal  and  pecuniary  sacrifice  organ- 
ized and  carried  forward  the  movement  for  the  practical  redemp- 
tion of  Kansas  from  the  power  of  the  slave-holders.  He  lived, 
too,  in  Worcester,  the  great  seat  of  Abolitionism,  and  was  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  Garrison  party  and  their  purposes. 
For  twenty -five  years  before  he  started  his  Emigration  Society, 
when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  became  a  foregone 
conclusion,  they  had  been  carrying  on  what  Mr.  Oliver  Johnson 
calls  their  '  moral  fight '  against  slavery  '  with  but  a  remarkably 
feeble  response  from  the  people,  while  slavery  went  on  from  tri- 
umph to  triumph,  so  that  it  had  become  stronger  in  1854  than  it 

had  ever  been  since  the  foundation  of  the  Government.' 
******* 

.  "The  Garrison  Abolitionists  were  therefore  as  uncompromis- 
ing in  their  disunionism  as  the  bitterest  fire-eaters  of  the  South; 
and,  as  Mr.  Thayer  says,  if  they  had  succeeded  in  their  purposes, 
the  result  would  have  been  '  the  destruction  of  the  Union  and 
the  erection  of  a  great  slave  power.' " 

The  following  is  an  editorial  in  the  New  Eng- 
land Home  Journal  of  May  21,  1887  : 

'BLEEDING  KANSAS'  DAYS. 

"  Just  now  when  the  story  of  the  battle-fields  is  being  told  and 
retold  in  literature,  not  with  a  view  to  engender  heat,  or  continue 
animosity,  but  to  secure  accuracy  in  permanent  history,  the  thor- 
ough revival  of  the  days  of  the  early  Kansas  struggle  shares  im- 
portance with  few  other  features  of  the  time.  We  have  already 
expressed  our  satisfaction  at  the  value  of  the  discussion  started 
by  Hon.  Eli  Thayer's  reminiscences  of  his  New  England  Emi- 
grant Aid  Society,  originally  given  and  recently  published  in  the 
transactions  of  the  Worcester  Society  of  Antiquity.  Entirely  of 
separate  origin,  but  in  the  same  line,  comes  a  little  later  the  reply 


232  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  Mr.  Tbayer  to  some  strictures  on  his  pristine  organization 
which  appears  in  the  Hay-Nicolay  '  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,' 
in  a  recent  number  of  the  Centui*y.  The  two  authors  in  question 
probably  intended  no  deliberate  unfairness,  their  reference  being 
both  slight  and  slighting,  but  it  has  given  Mr.  Thayer  opportu- 
nity for  a  very  full  and  pungent  review  of  his  Emigrant  Aid  So- 
ciety of  1856,  which  first  of  all  appeals  stirred  the  North  to  a 
new  realization  of  the  encroachments  of  the  slave  power,  and 
was  the  first  suggestion  of  methods  in  that  conflict  looking  to  the 
resort  to  arms.  It  is  certain  that  the  Kansas  collision  in  arms, 
slight  as  it  was  in  actual  result,  prepared  the  minds  of  that  whole 
generation  of  men  for  the  event  which  came  later,  but  following 
direct  sequences,  in  President  Lincoln's  call  for  75,000  men  to 
subdue  the  rebellion.  This  call  came  to  a  people  whose  eyes  had 
already  been  opened  to  the  possibilities  of  the  struggle,  by  the 
declared  mission  of  Sharp's  rifles  on  Kansas  soil.  If  any  have 
doubted  that  this  was  the  full  meaning  and  lesson  of  the  early 
Kansas  days,  recent  light  cast  on  the  question  has  been  of  value." 

There  is  one  very  important  suggestion  in  the 
above ;  that  the  Kansas  contest  not  only  combined 
the  North  as  a  unit  against  slavery,  but  gave  her 
that  special  training  which  enabled  her  to  subdue 
secession. 

Editorial  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  April 
27,1887: 

"  Mr.  Eli  Thayer,  the  founder  of  the  New  England  Emigrant 
Company  that  played  so  large  a  part  in  the  struggle  for  '  Free 
Kansas '  thirty  years  ago,  writes  for  the  Boston  Herald  a  slashing 
criticism  of  the  last  instalment  of  Nicolay  and  Hay's  biography 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  April  Century.  The  authors  of  the 
biography  are  accused  of  '  an  effort  to  disparage  the  work  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,'  by  showing  that  there  was  no  need  of 
any  such  organization,  and  that  it  was  of  little,  if  any,  use  in 
securing  the  freedom  of  Kansas.  Mr.  Thayer  shows  that  this  is 
a  totally  erroneous  conception,  and  scarcely  excusable  in  a  work 
which  assumes  to  take  a  place  among  sober  works  of  history. 
The  Emigrant  Aid  Company  was  not  only  systematic  and  effi- 


N.  Y.  EVENING  POST.  233 

cient  in  its  own  field  of  operations,  but  it  formed  the  indispen- 
sable rallying-point  of  all  other  efforts  for  making  Kansas  a  free 
State.  To  suppose  that  Kansas  could  have  been  rescued  from 
the  pro-slavery  conspiracy  by  the  ordinary  course  of  free  immi- 
gration, is  to  ignore  all  the  facts  of  contemporary  history,  geog- 
raphy, and  social  science.  The  truth  was  stated  with  great 
frankness  and  exactness  by  Senator  Green  of  Missouri,  in  1861, 
when  he  said: '  But  for  the  hot-bed  plants  that  have  been  planted 
in  Kansas  by  the  instrumentality  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society, 
Kansas  would  have  been  with  Missouri  this  day.'  Yet  it  is  not 
to  be  supposed  that  the  biographers  of  Abraham  Lincoln  have 
made  any  'effort'  to  disparage  the  work  of  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Company.  They  could  have  had  no  motive  to  do  so.  They 
have  not  made  sufficient  preliminary  study  for  this  part  of  their 
work;  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  their  sketch  of  the  war 
•with  Mexico." 

Editorial  in  the  Boston  Herald,  April  25,  1887 : 

ELI  THAYER'S  TESTIMONY. 

"  Hon.  Eli  Thayer  exposes  in  the  Sunday  Herald  of  yesterday 
some  very  bad  mistakes  which  the  authors  of  the  new  Life  of 
Lincoln,  publishing  in  the  Century  Magazine,  have  made  in  their 
narration  of  the  settlement  of  Kansas.  This  is  in  the  line  of  what 
we  stated  at  the  time  the  instalment  criticised  appeared.  These 
biographers  are  excellently  fitted  to  write  of  Mr.  Lincoln  himself, 
especially  as  they  saw  him  in  personal  intercourse.  They  will 
make  a  most  interesting,  as  well  as  valuable,  book,  if  they  con- 
fine themselves  to  this  point.  Beyond  it  they  have  shown  them- 
selves not  to  be  reliable  historians.  We  alluded  to  some  instances 
in  point.  Mr.  Thayer's  exposure  is  signal  and  conclusive.  It  is 
all  the  more  pity  that  they  should  have  swelled  their  book  by  the 
narration  of  this  Kansas  settlement,  as  it  had  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln." 

And  again,  May  3,  1887: 

THE  KANSAS  CONFLICT. 

"  The  exposure  of  the  bad  mistake  made  by  the  authors  of  the 
'  Life  of  Lincoln,'  in  the  Century,  with  regard  to  the  early  history 


234  TIIE    KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  Kansas,  has  at  last  fully  found  its  way  into  the  press,  and  is 
generally  commented  upon.  It  was  originally  exposed  in  the 
Herald  more  than  a  week  ago.  This  patronizing  conception  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  of  the  North  as  an  organization  of  good 
intentions,  but  of  no  important  achievement,  was  almost  gro- 
tesque in  its  error,  had  not  its  injustice  overshadowed  its  absurd 
feature." 

The  following  testimony,  proving  the  efficiency 
and  controlling  power  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany in  the  decisive  contest  between  freedom  and 
slavery  in  Kansas,  is  mainly  from  the  pro-slavery 
side. 

In  his  evidence  before  the  Howard  Congressional 
Committee,*  John  H.  Stringfellow,  having  been 
duly  sworn,  said : 

"At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  and 
prior  to  that  time,  I  never  heard  any  man,  in  my  section  of  Mis- 
souri, express  a  doubt  about  the  character  of  the  institutions 
which  would  be  established  here,  provided  the  Missouri  restric- 
tion was  removed ;  and  I  heard  of  no  combination  of  persons, 
either  in  public  or  private,  prior  to  the  time  of  the  organization 
of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  and  indeed  for  months  afterwards, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  united  action  to  frustrate  the  designs 
of  that  society  in  abolitionizing,  or  making  a  free  State  of  Kan- 
sas. The  conviction  was  general  that  it  would  be  a  slave  State. 
The  settlers  who  came  over  from  Missouri  after  the  passage  of 
the  bill,  so  far  as  I  know,  generally  believed  that  Kansas  would 
be  a  slave  State.  Free-State  men  who  came  into  the  Territory 
after  the  passage  of  the  bill  were  regarded  with  jealousy  by  the 
people  of  western  Missouri,  for  the  reason  that  a  society  had 
been  formed  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  shaping  the  institutions 
of  Kansas  Territory,  so  as  to  make  it  a  free  State  in  opposition 
to  the  interests  of  the  people  of  Missouri.  If  no  emigrant  aid 
societies  had  been  formed  in  the  Northern  States,  the  emigration 
of  people  from  there,  known  to  be  in  favor  of  making  Kansas  a 

*  House  Documents  Thirty-fourth  Congress,  No.  200. 


STRINGFELLOW.— EDWARDS.  235 

free  State,  would  have  stimulated  the  emigration  from  Missouri. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  emigrant  aid  societies,  the  majority  in 
favor  of  slave  institutions  would,  by  the  natural  course  of  emi- 
gration, have  been  so  great  as  to  have  fixed  the  institutions  of  the 
Territory  without  any  exciting  contest,  as  it  was  in  the  Settle- 
ment of  the  Platte  Purchase.  This  was  the  way  we  regarded  the 
passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  and  this  was  the  reason  why 
we  supported  it." 

Isaac  M.  Edwards  (sworn) : 

"It  is  my  opinion  that  all  the  difficulties  and  troubles  have 
been  produced  by  the  operations  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society. 
I  am  satisfied  that  if  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  had  not  sent  men 
out  to  the  Territory  of  Kansas  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  a  free 
State,  there  would  be  no  trouble  or  difficulties  in  the  Territory." 

Scores  of  other  witnesses  before  the  Howard 
Commission  testified  in  nearly  the  same  words  that 
there  would  have  been  no  contest  whatever  in  Kan- 
sas had  it  not  been  caused  by  the  efforts  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company  to  make  Kansas  a  free 
State,  by  sending  thither  organized  colonies  of  free- 
State  men. 

This  was  not  the  testimony  of  Missourians  alone, 
nor  of  pro-slavery  settlers  in  Kansas.  You  will 
find  it  in  all  the  pro-slavery  papers  of  the  time,  and 
in  nearly  all  the  antislavery  journals. 

Throughout  the  South  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany, often  under  the  name  of  "  Eli  Thayer  &  Co.," 
was  charged  with  the  enormous  crime  of  making 
Kansas  a  free  State.  In  Missouri  various  sums,  in 
several  localities,  were  publicly  offered  for  the  head 
of  the  founder  of  that  company. 

Even  in  the  halls  of  Congress  pro-slavery  sena- 
tors and  representatives  denounced  this  company 


236  TEE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

as  the  power  which  had  robbed  the  slave-State 
party  of  Kansas,  and  had  put  in  peril  the  very  ex- 
istence of  slavery. 

In  1861,  though  the  battle  had  been  fought  in 
Kansas,  and  the  victory  won  by  the  free-State  men 
years  before,  Senator  Green,  of  Missouri,  said  in  the 
Senate :  "  But  for  the  hot-bed  plants  that  have  been 
planted  in  Kansas  through  the  instrumentality  of 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  Kansas  would  have  been 
with  Missouri  this  day." 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  his  report  to  the  United 
States  Senate  in  1856,  said :  "  Popular  sovereignty 
was  struck  down  by  unholy  combinations  in  Xew 
England." 

Senator  J.  A.  Bayard,  of  Delaware,  said  :  "  What- 
ever evil  or  loss  or  suffering  or  injury  may  result 
to  Kansas,  or  to  the  United  States  at  large,  is  at- 
tributable, as  a  primary  cause,  to  the  Emigrant  Aid 
Society  of  Massachusetts." 

Senator  Douglas,  in  his  report  to  the  Senate 
March  12,  1856,  while  vigorously  denouncing  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  excuses  the  acts  of  the 
border  ruffians  as  follows  : 

"  When  the  emigrants  sent  out  by  the  Massachusetts  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  and  their  affiliated  societies  passed  through  the 
State  of  Missouri  in  large  numbers  on  their  way  to  Kansas,  the 
violence  of  their  language  and  the  unmistakable  indications  of 
their  determined  hostility  to  (he  domestic  institutions  of  that 
State  created  apprehensions  that  the  object  of  the  company  was 
to  abolitionize  Kansas  as  a  means  of  prosecuting  a  relentless  war- 
fare upon  the  institutions  of  slavery  within  the  limits  of  Missouri. 
These  apprehensions  increased  and  spread  with  the  progress  of 
events,  until  they  became  the  settled  convictions  of  the  people 
of  that  portion  of  the  State  most  exposed  to  the  danger  by  their 


STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS.  237 

proximity  to  the  Kansas  border.  The  natural  consequence  was 
that  immediate  steps  were  taken  by  the  people  of  the  western 
counties  of  Missouri  to  stimulate,  organize,  and  carry  into  effect 
a  S3rstem  of  emigration  similar  to  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  counteracting 
the  effects,  and  protecting  themselves  and  their  domestic  insti- 
tutions from  the  consequences  of  that  company's  operations." 

The  following  article  is  from  the  Charleston 
(S.  C.)  Mercury  of  July,  1856 : 

"Now  upon  the  proposition  that  the  safety  of  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  South  Carolina  is  dependent  upon  its  establishment 
in  Kansas,  there  can  be  no  rational  doubt.  He,  therefore,  who 
does  not  contribute  largely  in  money  now,  proves  himself  crim- 
inally indifferent,  if  not  hostile,  to  the  institution  upon  which  the 
prosperity  of  the  South  and  of  this  State  depends.  Let  the 
names,  therefore,  be  published  daily,  that  we  may  see  who  are 
lukewarm  in  this  vital  issue — then  we  may  see  who  are  the  peo- 
ple in  this  community  who  require  to  be  watched.  .  .  . 

' '  We  suggest  that  the  Kansas  Association  appoint  a  large 
vigilance  committee,  whose  consultations  shall  be  secret,  and 
who  shall  take  in  charge  the  conduct  of  delinquents,  and  adopt 
such  secret  measures  in  reference  to  them  as  the  interests  of  the 
community  demand.  In  this  Wciy  the  contributions  will  doubt- 
less be  adequate,  and  the  cause  of  Kansas  will  prosper." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  long  address 
issued  by  Atchison,  Stringfellow,  Buford,  and  oth- 
ers, on  the  21st  of  June,  1856 : 

"  Kansas  they  [the  Abolitionists]  justly  regard  as  the  mere  out- 
post of  the  war  now  being  waged  between  the  antagonistic  civil- 
izations of  the  North  and  South,  and,  winning  this  great  outpost 
and  stand-point,  they  rightly  think  their  march  will  be  open  to  an 
easy  conquest  of  the  whole  field.  Hence  the  extraordinary 
means  the  Abolition  party  has  adopted  to  flood  Kansas  with  the 
most  fanatical  and  lawless  portion  of  Northern  society,  and 
hence  the  large  sums  of  money  .  .  .  expended  ...  to  surround 
Missourians  with  obnoxious  and  dangerous  neighbors.  On  the 


238  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

other  hand,  the  pro-slavery  element  of  the  law  and  order  party 
in  Kansas,  looking  to  the  Bible,  finds  slavery  ordained  of  God. 
.  . .  Slavery  is  the  negro's  normal  and  proper  state.  We  believe 
it  a  trust  and  guardianship,  given  as  of  God  for  the  good  of  both 
races.  .  .  .  This  is  ...  a  great  social  and  political  question  of 
races,  ...  a  question  whether  we  shall  sink  to  the  level  of  the 
freed  African,  and  take  him  to  the  embrace  of  social  and  political 
equality  and  fraternity;  for  such  is  the  natural  end  of  Abolition 
progress.  .  .  .  That  man  or  State  is  deceived  that  fondly  trusts 
these  fanatics  may  stop  at  Kansas.  .  .  .  The  most  convincing 
proof  of  this  was  recently  given  before  the  Congressional  inves- 
tigating committee.  Judge  Matthew  Walker  .  .  .  testified  .  .  . 
that  before  the  Abolitionists  selected  Lawrence  as  their  centre  of 
operations,  their  leader,  Governor  Robinson,  attempted  to  get  a 
foothold  for  them  in  the  Wyandotte  Reserve.  . .  .  Robinson,  find- 
ing it  necessary  to  communicate  their  plans  and  objects,  divulged 
to  Walker  (whom  he  then  supposed  to  be  a  sympathizer)  that 
the  Abolitionists  were  determined  on  winning  Kansas  at  any 
cost;  that  then,  having  Missouri  surrounded  on  three  sides, 
they  would  begin  their  assaults  on  her,  and  as  fast  as  one 
State  gave  way  attack  another,  until  the  whole  South  was  abo- 
litionized.  .  .  .  We  are  confident  that .  .  .  the  Abolition  party  was 
truly  represented  by  Robinson,  who  has  always  been  their  chief 
man  and  acknowledged  leader  in  Kansas.  ...  It  was  proved  he- 
fore  the  investigating  committee  that  the  Abolition  party  had 
travelling  agents  in  the  Territory,  whose  duty  it  was  to  gather  up, 
exaggerate,  and  report  for  publication  rumors  to  the  prejudice 
of  the  law  and  order  party. ...  In  the  present  imperilled  state  of 
your  civilization,  if  we  do  not  maintain  this  outpost  we  cannot 
long  maintain  the  citadel.  Then  rally  to  the  rescue. " 

De  Bow's  Review  for  August,  1856,  published  an 
appeal  to  the  South  in  favor  of  establishing  slavery 
in  Kansas.  Here  are  several  extracts : 

"Slaves  will  now  yield  a  greater  profit  in  Kansas,  either  to 
hire  out  or  to  cultivate  the  soil,  than  any  other  place. .  .  .  Those 
who  have  brought  their  slaves  here  are  reaping  a  rich  reward  . .  . 
and  feel  as  secure  in  their  property  here  as  in  Kentucky  and 
Missouri.  .  .  .  Why  it  is  that  more  of  our  friends  have  not  brought 


DE  BOW'S  REVIEW.  239 

their  slaves  with  them, we  are  at  a  loss  to  divine,  unless  the  false- 
hoods and  threats  of  the  Abolitionists  have  frightened  them. .  .  . 
Should  Kansas  he  made  a  slave  State?  We  say  that  location, 
climate,  soil,  productions,  value  of  slave  labor,  the  good  of  the  mas- 
ter and  slave — all  conspire  and  cry  aloud  that  it  should  be.  .  .  . 
The  squatters,  too,  have  said  three  successive  times,  at  the  polls, 
that  Kansas  should  be  a  slave  State.  But  if  all  this  is  not  enough, 
then  we  say,  without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  Kan- 
sas must  be  a  slave  State  or  the  Union  will  be  dissolved.  ...  If 
Kansas  is  not  made  a  slave  State,  it  requires  no  sage  to  foretell 
that  there  will  never  be  another  slave  State.  .  .  .Can  Kansas  be 
made  a  slave  State?  Thus  far  the  pro-slavery  party  has  tri- 
umphed in  Kansas  in  spite  of  the  Abolitionists  and  their  Emi- 
grant Aid  Societies." 

The  prophetic  threat  of  secession  in  the  above — 
"  Kansas  must  be  a  slave  State  or  the  Union  will 
be  dissolved"  —  is  repeated  in  several  quotations 
that  follow.  During  the  great  conflict  in  Kansas 
this  threat  was  made  thousands  of  times  in  South- 
ern journals.  They  all  asserted  constantly,  and 
with  the  best  of  reasons,  that  should  Kansas  be  a 
free  State  there  could  never  be  another  slave  State 
admitted  into  the  Union.  Here,  then,  was  the  ar- 
gument and  the  prelude  of  the  attempted  secession. 
The  Civil  War  followed,  and  the  slaves  were  eman- 
cipated "  as  a  military  necessity."  These  were  the 
logical  sequences  of  the  grand  crusade  and  conflict. 

Ealph  Waldo  Emerson  said  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  in  his  "  Miscellanies,"  page  248  : 

"  Whilst  we  have  pointed  out  the  opportuneness  of  the  Proc- 
lamation, it  remains  to  be  said  that  the  President  had  no  choice. 
He  might  look  wistfully  for  what  variety  of  courses  lay  open  to 
him;  every  line  but  one  was  closed  up  with  fire.  This  one,  too, 
bristled  with  danger,  but  through  it  was  the  sole  safety.  The 
measure  he  has  adopted  was  imperative.  .  .  . 


240  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"  We  think  we  cannot  overstate  the  wisdom  and  benefit  of  this 
act  of  the  Government.  The  malignant  cry  of  the  secession 
press  within  the  free  States,  and  the  recent  action  of  the  Con- 
federate Congress,  are  decisive  as  to  its  efficiency  and  correctness 
of  aim." 

The  following,  of  like  import  with  De  Bow's  Re- 
view, is  from  the  Mobile  Register,  January,  1858 : 

"  We  sincerely  trust  there  will  be  no  flinching  or  hesitation 
on  the  part  of  our  Southern  representatives  in  Congress  in  the 
emergency  before  us.  We  hope  they  will  meet  the  issue  with 
an  unbroken  front,  and  let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  the 
admission  of  Kansas,  with  her  present  Constitution  and  upon 
her  present  application,  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  the  continuance  of 
the  Southern  States  in  the  confederacy." 

From  the  Charleston  Mercury,  January,  1858 : 

"Georgia,  Mississippi,  and  Alabama  stand  pledged  to  secede 
from  the  Union  should  Kansas,  applying  to  Congress  for  admis- 
sion as  a  slave  State,  be  refused  admission." 

From  the  New  York  Herald,  January,  1858 : 

"With  the  capitulation  of  the  South  upon  Kansas,  all  the 
measures,  principles,  abstractions,  and  protestations  of  the  South- 
ern politicians,  statesmen,  States,  and  conventions  of  the  last 
fifty  years  will  be  reduced  to  rubbish,  and  the  chivalry,  the  pres- 
tige, the  unity  and  self-sustaining  spirit  of  the  South  will  have 
departed  forever.  The  question  is  one  of  life  or  death  to  the 
South,  upon  the  simple  alternative  of  the  admission  or  rejection 
of  Kansas  with  her  slave-State  Constitution." 

From  the  Richmond  South,  November  24, 1857: 

"We  declare  at  once  that  the  Democracy  of  the  South  will 
never  suffer  Kansas  to  be  kept  out  of  the  Union  simply  because 
its  Constitution  has  never  been  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the 
people." 

The  following  extract  from  a  speech  made  by 
Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell  in  Tremont  Temple,  Bos- 


GEORGE  S.  BOTJTWELL.  241 

ton,  December  16,  1861,  contains  several  very  im- 
portant facts,  which  I  intend  to  examine  and  ac- 
count for : 

"These  people  have  gone  out  of  the  Union  because  they  see 
they  cannot  extend  slavery  in  the  Union.  It  was  not  because  a 
few  Abolitionists  in  the  North  hated  slavery;  it  was  not  because 
some  of  us  went  to  Chicago  in  1860  and  nominated  Abraham 
Lincoln  for  President,  and  then  elected  him;  but  it  was  because 
men  of  all  parties  and  all  persuasions  and  all  ideas  in  the  North 
had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  slavery  should  not  be  extended. 
It  was  the  doctrine  of  churches,  the  doctrine  of  homes  and 
hearth-stones,  that  slavery  should  not  be  extended." 

1.  "  These  people  have  gone  out  of  the  Union 
because   they   could   not   extend   slavery   in  the 
Union." 

The  reader  will  observe  in  the  preceding  quota- 
tions that  "  these  people  "  had  been  saying,  during 
the  entire  Kansas  struggle,  that  should  they  lose 
Kansas  they  could  never  form  another  slave  State 
in  the  Union,  and  should  therefore  go  out  of  the 
Union.  Now,  why  did  they  lose  Kansas  ?  Abun- 
dant authority  has  already  been  presented  in  these 
pages  to  prove  that  they  lost  Kansas  through  the 
plan  of  organized  emigration  employed  by  the  Emi- 
grant Aid  Company  and  by  hundreds  of  Kansas 
leagues  in  thirteen  Northern  States.  All  these  or- 
ganizations had  a  common  origin,  and  acted  upon 
the  same  principles.  Without  them  there  would 
have  been  no  contest  whatever  in  that  Territory. 
So  what  Mr.  Boutwell  says  is  true ;  and  this  com- 
mentary, which  he  withholds,  is  no  less  true. 

2.  "  It  was  not  because  a  few  Abolitionists  in  the 
North  hated  slavery." 

11 


243  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Evidently  not.  For  twenty-five  years  slavery 
had  prospered  to  such  an  extent  in  defiance  of  that 
hatred,  that  she  had,  in  185-i,  obtained  absolute 
control  of  every  department  of  the  Government. 
The  Abolitionists  to  whom  Mr.  Boutwell  refers — 
the  Garrison  disunionists — had  accomplished  noth- 
ing, as  has  been  amply  shown  by  the  highest  au- 
thorities in  our  history.  Had  the  South  secured 
Kansas  for  slavery,  she  might  have  continued  to 
laugh  to  scorn  the  impotence,  as  well  as  the  impu- 
dence, of  these  fanatics. 

3.  "  It  was  not  because  some  of  us  went  to  Chi- 
cago and  nominated  Lincoln  for  President,  and  then 
elected  him." 

Here  Mr.  Boutwell  wisely  corrects  a  popular 
error,  that  the  South  attempted  to  secede  from  the 
Union  because  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  President. 
Had  the  South  made  Kansas  a  slave  State  it  would 
not  have  been  in  the  power  of  Lincoln  or  of  any 
other  President,  however  hostile  to  slavery  he 
might  have  been,  to  do  anything  whatever  to  im- 
pair the  strength  or  to  hinder  the  progress  of  that 
institution.  In  a  few  years  the  South  would  have 
had  in  the  Senate  a  large  majority  of  members 
from  the  slave  States.  Hence  there  could  have 
been  no  legislation  detrimental  to  their  cherished 
institution.  It  is,  therefore,  supreme  folly  to  attrib- 
ute secession  to  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Had 
the  South  won  Kansas  she  would  never  have  at- 
tempted secession. 

4.  "  But  it  was  because  men  of  all  parties  and  all 
persuasions  and  all  ideas  in  the  North  had  come  to 


WHAT  DID  IT.  243 

the  conclusion  that  slavery  should  not  be  extended. 
It  was  the  doctrine  of  churches,  the  doctrine  of 
homes  and  hearth-stones,  that  slavery  should  not  be 
extended." 

Yery  well.  But  what  agency  had  accomplished 
this  unification  of  the  North  upon  this  question? 
In  the  spring  of  1854,  when  the  entire  North  was 
engaged  in  protesting  against  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  trembling  at  the  pros- 
pect of  more  slave  States  and  the  perpetual  domi- 
nation of  slavery — when  Charles  Sumner  spoke 
against  the  repeal  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
"  standing,"  as  he  said,  u  by  the  very  grave  of  free- 
dom in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  " — when  Senator  Sew- 
ard  conceded  these  Territories  to  slavery,  saying, 
"  None  of  us  here  can  have  anything  to  do  in  pre- 
venting or  removing  the  curse ;  it  may  be  done  by 
future  generations" — THEN,  in  the  spring  of  the 
pivotal  year  1854,  these  same  "men  of  all  parties 
and  all  persuasions  and  all  ideas"  had  not  the 
slightest  hope  of  making  Kansas  free,  or  of  arrest- 
ing the  continued  and  triumphant  tyranny  of  the 
"  Black  Power  "  in  this  country.  But  just  here  came 
the  revelation  of  a  plan  to  save  Kansas.  At  first 
nobody  believed  in  it;  but  before  the  end  of  1854 
"  the  men  of  all  parties  and  all  persuasions  and  all 
ideas"  began  to  be  combined  in  this  great  work. 
Before  the  end  of  1856  the  North  was  a  unit  against 
the  extension  of  slavery.  In  fact,  any  such  exten- 
sion had  been  made  forever  impossible  by  the  tri- 
umph of  the  free-State  cause  in  Kansas.  That  was 
the  beginning  of  the  end  of  slavery.  To  be  sure, 


244  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Douglas  debated  the  question 
of  slavery  extension  in  1858,  but  they  were  discuss- 
ing an  issue  absolutely  dead  and  of  no  importance 
whatever  to  anybody  except  to  the  debaters  them- 
selves. 

"We  had  already  secured  the  freedom  of  Kansas, 
while  the  slave-holders  had  every  possible  advan- 
tage in  the  contest.  They  had  the  full  control  of 
every  department  of  the  Government,  and  were  in 
force  upon  the  very  border  of  the  Territory,  while 
our  emigrants  had  to  make  a  journey  of  many  hun- 
dred miles,  and  much  of  that  through  the  slave 
State  of  Missouri.  But  by  the  Plan  of  Freedom 
adopted  by  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  Kansas 
was  made  free — very  decidedly  free — so  that  when 
admitted  into  the  Union  there  was  no  slave  State 
party  within  her  borders.  "What,  then,  would  have 
been  the  result  had  the  attempt  been  made  to  cre- 
ate a  slave  State  either  south  or  west  of  Kansas, 
while  we  had  her  as  our  base  of  supplies  for  men 
and  arms?  It  really  seems  jocose  to  discuss  such 
a  matter.  Messrs.  Lincoln  and  Douglas  might  as 
well  have  debated  whether  or  not  it  was  desirable 
to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  the  Glacial  Period. 
In  proof  of  the  position  that  there  could  be  no 
more  slave  States,  I  trust  I  shall  be  pardoned  for 
introducing  here  an  extract  from  my  speech  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  the  24th  of  February, 
1859,  made  soon  after  the  Douglas-Lincoln  debate, 
as  follows : 

"I  can  refer  you  to  the  history  of  Kansas.  Kansas,  \vithout 
any  protection  for  freedom,  has  become  a  free  State,  or  at  least 


NO  MORE  SLAVE  STATES.  245 

she  is  this  day  prepared  to  be  a  free  State,  and  will  never  be  any- 
thing less.  In  defiance  of  numerous  obstacles  in  the  way  of  ob- 
taining her  freedom,  she  has  bravely  secured  it.  In  the  immedi- 
ate vicinity  of  the  Platte  Purchase,  the  most  intensely  pro-slavery 
portion  of  Missouri,  there,  almost  in  the  bosom  of  slave  States, 
there,  far  removed  from  the  States  of  the  North,  which  furnish 
emigrants  to  the  West,  and  with  all  the  force  of  the  General  Gov- 
ernment against  freedom,  and  for  slavery  in  the  Territory,  the 
free-State  heroes  have  triumphed ;  and  not  only  that,  but  they 
have  put  forth  many  times  the  power  which  was  requisite  to  ac- 
complish the  grand  result.  If  it  had  not  been  for  Executive  in- 
tervention, and  for  the  cowardly  predictions  of  faint-hearted  anti- 
slavery  men  in  the  North  that  Kansas  would  be  lost,  I  think, 
sir,  that  the  contest  might  have  been  ended  before  the  year  1856. 

"But  as  it  was,  notwithstanding  all  the  obstacles  in  her  way, 
the  contest  began  to  grow  insipid  during  that  year  for  want  of 
opposition  from  the  pro-slavery  side,  and  I  left  it,  as  Atchison 
and  Stringfellow  had  already  done.  Since  that  time  we  know 
very  well  what  has  been  the  history  of  Kansas.  It  is  now  ap- 
parent that  there  are  at  least  eight  or  nine  free-State  men  in  that 
Territory  to  one  slave-State  man.  Whatever  may  have  been  in- 
tended, such,  sir,  has  been  the  effect  of  adopting  this  principle, 
which  has  compelled  Northern  men  to  reJy  upon  themselves, 
and  act  upon  their  own  responsibility  in  this  matter  of  making 
free  States.  This  is  safer  than  to  leave  this  question  to  Congress 
and  to  law.  I  have  a  thousand  times  more  confidence  in  the 
people  than  I  have  in  Congress  on  this  subject. 

"Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  compare  the  resources  of  these  two 
causes  that  contend  for  pre-eminence  in  the  Territories — free  la- 
bor and  slave  labor.  How  do  we  find  the  wealth  and  numbers 
of  the  North  when  contrasted  with  those  of  the  South?  I  shall 
not  dwell  upon  this  point,  for  on  a  former  occasion  I  opened  that 
greatest  book  of  martyrs,  the  Census  of  the  United  States,  and 
showed  how  these  facts  were. 

"But  how  do  the  North  and  South  compare  in  the  power  of 
combination?  Why,  we  men  of  the  North,  called  the  Northern 
hive,  live  in  towns  and  villages.  Even  our  agricultural  districts 
are  quite  densely  peopled.  We  have,  in  Massachusetts,  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  men  to  the  square  mile.  If  there  is  any  difficul- 
ty abroad  or  at  home — if  there  is  any  need  for  immediate  action 


246  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

or  remote  action,  it  is  easy  for  us  to  assemble,  and  consult,  and 
determine  what  action  is  needed,  and  what  shall  be  most  effective. 
And,  sir,  when  it  was  necessary  to  put  some  colonies  into  Kan- 
sas, I  found  no  difficulty  in  having  meetings  in  these  towns  and 
villages  at  very  short  notice.  Plans  were  formed  for  making 
colonies,  and  for  taking  possession  of  the  country  in  dispute, 
and  thus  the  result  contemplated  was  accomplished.  But  how 
can  any  such  concert  of  action  exist  in  that  part  of  our  country 
where  there  is  only  eighty-nine  one-hundredths  of  a  man  to  a 
square  mile?  What  chance  of  holding  meetings,  of  kindling  en- 
thusiasm, of  taking  council,  and  of  laying  plans  for  accomplish- 
ing grand  results?  None  whatever. 

"Then,  sir,  added  to  this  ready  combination,  we  also  have 
great  facilities  of  locomotion.  Our  people  can  migrate  with  but 
little  difficulty.  If  there  were  a  meeting  to-night  to  put  a  colony 
into  Kansas,  all  the  arrangement  might  be  perfected,  and  com- 
plete preparation  made  for  starting,  in  two  weeks.  The  next 
day  after  the  meeting  you  would  see  flaming  hand-bills  on  the 
streets  headed, '  Ho  for  Kansas!'  '  Property  for  Sale !'  Daguerre- 
otypes of  some  '  familiar  faces,'  and  perhaps  the  old  homestead, 
would  be  taken,  and  in  two  weeks  the  colony,  on  the  lightning 
train,  following  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by 
night,  would  be  going  on  its  way  to  their  prairie  home. 

"How  can  a  Southern  planter  hope  to  rival  this  speed  and 
readiness  of  transition?  After  he  has  determined  to  emigrate, 
his  plantation  is  to  be  sold,  and  the  purchaser  is  to  be  hunted  up, 
and  much  time  is  required.  And  after  a  purchaser  is  found, 
credit  must  be  given  of  from  one  to  twenty  years.  But  suppose 
all  this  accomplished,  and  the  whole  train  of  servants  made 
ready  for  the  journey,  how  like  a  funeral  procession  would  they 
appear  loitering  along  through  the  swamps  of  Alabama  and  Mis- 
sissippi! No,  sir,  you  cannot  compete  with  us  in  this  game  of 
emigration.  "We  evidently  have  the  advantage  of  you  every  way. 
You  have  not  power  to  make  a  contest  in  this  matter  interesting. 
I  say  this  in  no  spirit  of  malignant  exultation.  I  am  laying 
down  facts,  and  I  wish  Southern  men  to  understand  their  bear- 
ing and  inevitable  consequences. 

"But,  sir,  the  Southern  planter  does  not  take  his  force  of  ne- 
groes to  a  disputed  Territory.  The  case  which  I  was  just  now 
supposing  never  really  occurs  in  practice.  It  did  not  once  occur 


FREE-STATE  COLONIES.  247 

during  the  contest  for  the  Territory  of  Kansas.  I  have  never 
heard  of  a  single  slave-holder  who  took  there  even  as  many  as 
five  negroes. 

"The  spirit  of  devotion  and  the  spirit  of  Christianity  some- 
times prompt  to  great  sacrifices,  but  I  am  compelled  to  "believe 
that  the  Southern  planters  are  few  in  number  who  will  hazard 
the  loss  of  their  slaves,  even  for  the  grand  purpose  of  securing 
'  scope  and  verge '  to  African  Christianization. 

"  If,  then,  there  is  no  motive  of  Christianity  potent  enough  to 
influence  slave-holders  to  move  with  their  slaves  to  the  Territo- 
ries of  the  West,  there  certainly  can  be  no  other  sufficient  induce- 
ment. There  can  be  no  pecuniary  inducement  to  convey  slaves 
where  the  very  soil  under  their  feet  will  be  in  dispute,  and  where 
the  slaves  themselves  may  be  confiscated  by  an  organic  law  ex- 
cluding slavery  from  the  new  State,  or  by  the  statute  law  of  the 
Territory,  called  'unfriendly  legislation.' 

"Again,  sir,  there  is  a  converting  power  in  these  free-State 
colonies,  and  it  is  a  wonderful  power.  I  assert,  on  the  best  au- 
thority, that  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  Kansas,  who  went 
there  from  slave  States,  are  to-day  free-State  men.  They  came 
in  contact  with  these  Northern  communities,  they  learned  some 
facts  of  which  they  were  not  before  cognizant,  and  they  made  up 
their  minds  that  it  was  best  for  them  and  their  children  that 
Kansas  should  be  a  free  State.  This  converting  influence  ex- 
tended to  the  governors  of  the  Territory.  'The  extinguishers 
themselves  took  fire,'  and  to  this  day  they  give  a  charmingly 
brilliant  light. 

"Now,  sir,  in  addition  to  these  resources,  contrast  the  causes 
themselves,  which  are  in  conflict.  Contrast  free  labor  with  slave 
labor.  What  are  their  histories  and  what  their  relative  power? 
Free  labor  has  covered  the  once  sterile  hills  of  New  England 
with  orchards  and  gardens  and  cornfields.  It  has  filled  our  val- 
leys with  the  music  of  machinery  and  the  hum  of  busy  industry. 
The  same  creating  power  has  built  thriving  cities  and  towns  upon 
our  Western  waters,  and  clothed  the  prairies  with  fields  of  wav- 
ing grain.  Scaling  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  same  majestic 
power  has  opened  the  golden  gates  of  the  Pacific,  and  has  trans- 
formed the  solitary  wilderness, 

"  '  Where  rolled  the  Oregon,  and  heard  no  sound, 
Save  his  own  dashings," 


248  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

I  into  a  prosperous  State,  destined  to  become  the  most  important 
seat  of  commerce  and  manufactures  on  our  "Western  coast. 

"  Here  are  some  of  the  trophies  of  free  labor.  Others  yet,  and 
greater,  will  be  secured  in  the  future.  Stronger  than  Briareus, 
and  possessing  more  arms  than  the  giant  monster  brought  to  de- 
fend the  throne  of  Jupiter  against  assailing  Titans,  free  labor, 
unaided  by  law,  relying  solely  on  its  own  inherent  energy,  -will 
always  be  found  able  to  protect  its  own  inheritance. 

"But  where  are  the  triumphs  of  slave  labor?  I  will  not  reply 
— I  press  this  comparison  no  further. 

"Now,  sir,  there  is  no  chance  of  making  another  slave  State 
from  any  Territory  belonging  to  this  confederacy.  I  state  this 
as  a  fair  and  well-founded  conclusion,  that  it  may  be  considered 
by  men  from  all  portions  of  the  country.  I  think  that  sensible 
men  from  the  South  already  consider  it  a  settled  fact.  What 
need,  then,  of  quarrelling  about  measures  for  securing  what  is 
already  secure?  Security  is  all  we  ask,  and  that  we  have.  That 
is  the  grand  result  of  a  contest  to  which  you  invited  us,  and  to 
which  we  reluctantly  came.  We  did  not  propose  to  you  this 
very  unequal  game  of  emigration.  It  was  a  game  which  was 
proposed  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  the  South  enlisted  in  it, 
under  the  lead  of  that  party.  And  what  was  the  stake?  You 
compelled  the  North  to  stake  Kansas  on  that  game,  while  you 
voluntarily  offered  to  stake  all  the  other  Territories.  For  one,  I 
was  ready  to  accept  that  challenge.  I  was  ready  to  enter  upon 
that  game  upon  such  terms.  I  did  do  it.  I  do  not  now  regret 
it.  I  do  not  want  it  otherwise  than  it  is;  for  all  that  we  have 
lost  in  achieving  the  victory  that  we  have  gained  is  more  than 
ten  thousand  times  repaid  in  that  disciplined  army  of  freemen, 
who  are  determined  to  see  that  all  is  right,  from  Minnesota  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  are  the  facts,  and  it  is  better  for  the 
whole  country  that  such  are  the  facts." 

It  would,  therefore,  have  been  but  a  graceful  act 
of  simple  justice  to  the  agency  which  had  made 
the  extension  of  slavery  impossible,  had  Mr.  Bout- 
well  given  the  credit  of  this  great  work  to  the 
Plan  of  Freedom,  as  pursued  and  exemplified  by 


ABUNDANT  PROOF.  249 

the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  and  its  numerous  sis- 
ter organizations. 

But  it  is  the  mission  of  this  book  to  supply  the 
"missing  links,"  not  only  in  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Bout  well,  but  in  the  writings  and  speeches  of  thou- 
sands of  others.  Proof  without  limit,  and  authori- 
ties without  number,  are  waiting  to  co-operate  in 
this  work.  At  this  time  only  a  selection  can  be 
made,  though  to  most  readers  this  will  be  convincing 
proof.  But  should  any  still  cherish  doubts,  it  will 
be  the  work  of  the  future  historian,  pursuing  the 
course  here  indicated,  to  dig  out  of  the  archives 
of  the  last  thirty-five  years  the  materials  for  the 
pedestal  upon  which  the  statue  of  Historic  Truth 
shall  stand  peerless  and  supreme. 

If  further  testimony  be  needed  to  show  the  pow- 
er of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company  in  Kansas  it  can 
be  found  in  quantities  almost  without  limit,  in  the 
Congressional  Globe,  in  the  reports  of  Congres- 
sional committees,  in  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
letters  from  the  Kansas  settlers  to  their  friends  in 
the  States,  in  the  editorials  of  all  the  Southern  and 
of  nearly  all  the  Northern  journals,  in  the  reports 
of  thousands  of  election  speeches,  and  in  all  con- 
temporaneous and  general  records  of  whatever 
kind. 

The  work  of  saving  Kansas  was  done  before  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world.  We  said  we  would  do  it, 
and  stop  the  making  of  slave  States.  "We  also  laid 
down  our  methods;  we  went  on  just  as  we  had 
promised  and  used  the  methods  proposed,  and  ac- 
complished the  results  aimed  at,  without  the  help 
11* 


250  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  politicians,  and  in  spite  of  the  active  hostility  of 
the  Abolitionists. 

No  man,  unless  he  be  ignorant  of  the  facts  in  the 
Kansas  struggle,  or  completely  blinded  by  malice 
or  envy,  will  ever  attempt  to  defraud  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company  of  the  glory  of  having  saved  Kansas 
by  defeating  the  slave  power  in  a  great  and  de- 
cisive contest. 

The  logical  sequences  of  this  great  work,  in  rela- 
tion to  slavery,  were : 

1.  The  conviction  in  the   South   that  no  more 
slave  States  could  ever  be  formed  in  the  Union. 

2.  The  attempt  to  secede,  so  that  slave  States 
might  be  formed  outside  of  the  Union. 

3.  The  Civil  War. 

4.  The  Emancipation  Proclamation  as  a  military 
necessity. 

5.  The  Union  preserved  and  slavery  destroyed. 
The  national  results  of  the  Kansas  conflict  may 

be  briefly  summarized : 

1.  It  stopped  the  making  of  slave  States. 

2.  It  made  the  Republican  party. 

3.  It  nearly  elected  Fremont,  and  did  elect  Lin- 
coln. 

4.  It  united  and  solidified  the  North  against 
slavery,  and  was  a  necessary  training  to  enable  it 
to  subdue  secession.* 


*  The  wonderful  increase  of  the  antislavery  vote  in  1855  and 
1856  was  brought  about  by  the  illegal  assaults  of  the  slave  power 
upon  the  citizens  of  Kansas.  The  figures  in  New  England  and 
New  York  from  1848  to  1856  are  here  given.  It  will  be  seen 


SEQUENCES  AND  RESULTS.  251 

5.  It  drove  the  slave-holders,  through  despera- 
tion, into  secession. 

6.  It  has  given  us  a  harmonious  and  enduring 
Union. 

7.  It  has  emancipated   the  white  race  of  the 
South,  as  well  as  the  negroes,  from  the  evils  of 
slavery. 

8.  It  is  even  now  regenerating  the  South. 

that  the  fall  elections  of  1854  were  little  influenced  by  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

New  England.  New  York. 

1848 72,368 120,479 

1849 79,454 1,311 

1850 42,270 3,410 

1851 43,401 000 

1852 57,143 25,359 

1853 63,668 000 

(Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  a  Lawful  act.) 

1854 .79,632 000 

(After  Unlawful  aggression  in  Kansas.) 

1855 184,850 136,698 

1856 307,417 276,004 


APPENDIX  I. 

SUICIDE     OF    SLAVERY. 

BY  the  request  of  many  friends  I  here  insert  two 
of  my  Congressional  speeches.  They  elucidate 
very  fully  the  preceding  chapters,  by  showing  the 
practice  and  philosophy  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com- 
pany. 

The  first,  upon  the  "  Suicide  of  Slavery,"  was  de- 
livered in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  25th 
of  March,  1858,  as  follows  : 

"  It  may  be  expected,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  at  this  time  I  should 
say  something  in  defence  of  the  Pilgrims  and  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  ;  for  they  have  been  repeatedly  assailed  on  this 
floor  within  the  last  two  weeks.  But  I  shall  make  no  defence. 
There  are  some  things  which  I  never  attempt  to  defend.  Among 
these  are  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  the  White  Mountains  of  New 
Hampshire,  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  Plymouth  Rock,  Bunker  Hill, 
and  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  Any  man  may  assail  either  or 
all  of  them  with  perfect  impunity,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned. 
And  words  of  disparagement  or  vituperation  directed  against 
either  of  these  objects,  by  any  assailant,  excite  in  me  feelings 
very  different  from  those  of  indignation — whether  the  assailant 
comes  with  a  bow  as  long  as  that  of  the  bold  Robin  Hood,  or  with  f 
a  bow  of  sliorter  range,  like  that  of  the  gentleman  from  Alabama 
[Mr.  Shorter].  [Laughter.]  But  I  deprecate  the  disposition  that 
impels  these  shafts  against  the  sister  States  of  this  confederacy. 
I  deprecate  this  sectional  animosity  whenever  and  wherever  I  see 
it  evinced.  I  have  heard  too  much  of  the  aggressions  of  the  North 
and  of  the  aggressions  of  the  South,  in  the  past,  to  be  very  much 
in  love  with  either  of  these  ideas.  I  have  never  been  accustomed 
to  speak  of  the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power,  and  I  have  no 
purpose  of  doing  it  now  or  hereafter.  If  the  one-hundredth  part 


254  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

of  the  people  of  this  country  can  make  dangerous  aggressions  on 
the  rights  and  interests  of  the  other  ninety-nine  hundredth  parts 
of  the  people,  either  by  the  force  of  strength  or  by  the  arts  of 
diplomacy,  I  assure  you  that  I  shall  be  the  last  man  to  complain 
of  it.  I  think  that  this  slavery  question  is  altogether  too  small  a 
question  to  disturb  so  great  a  people  as  inhabit  the  United  States 
of  America. 

"  For  myself,  I  was  always  in  favor  of  popular  sovereignty, 
rightly  so  called.  I  am  ready,  for  one,  to  agree  to-day  that  the 
Territories  belonging  to  this  Government  shall  be  open  to  settle- 
ment at  any  time,  when  Congress  thinks  fit  so  to  open  them,  and 
that  the  people  of  all  parts  of  the  country  shall  go  into  them 
with  the  assurance  of  absolute  and  complete  non-intervention ; 
with  the  assurance  that  whenever  any  chief  executive,  official,  or 
non-resident  shall  interfere,  by  fraud  or  violence,  in  their  affairs, 
he  shall  either  be  impeached  or  hanged;  with  the  assurance  that 
when  the  people  shall  have  the  ratio  of  representation  required 
by  law,  and  shall  come  to  Congress  with  a  Constitution  repub- 
lican in  form,  they  shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State. 
This,  sir,  is  popular  sovereignty,  and  it  is  what  was  practised  in 
this  country  two  centuries  ago. 

"The  people  of  the  Plymouth  colony  had  the  privilege  of 
choosing  their  own  governor  and  of  making  their  own  laws. 
The  same  was  true  of  the  New  Haven  colony,  and  of  the  colony 
of  the  Providence  Plantations.  They  always  did  it.  I  believe 
the  Crown  of  England  never  appointed  a  governor  for  these  col- 
onies; certainly  not  for  the  last  two.  But  were  those  people, 
without  ever  having  exercised  the  right  of  self-government,  bet- 
ter prepared  to  govern  themselves  than  are  our  people,  educated 
under  our  State  governments,  who  go  into  our  Territories?  Why, 
then,  should  we  continue  to  have  an  '  Ahab  to  trouble  Israel,' 
while  he  lays  the  blame  of  his  own  misconduct  upon  the  emi- 
grant aid  societies  ?  Why  not  cut  off  these  Territories  from  all 
connection  with  the  General  Government,  legislative  or  execu- 
tive? Then  we  shall  have  no  more  agitation  in  Congress,  and  no 
more  contention  in  the  Territories.  But  so  long  as  this  connec- 
tion continues,  so  long  as  we  have  a  President  trying  to  bias  by 
his  appointments,  and,  perhaps,  by  the  United  States  troops,  the 
will  of  the  people,  so  long  shall  we  have  agitation,  and  we  shall 
have  enough  of  it. 


SUICIDE   OF  SLAVERY.  255 

"  Well,  sir,  I  have  nothing  to  find  fault  about.  I  am  very  well 
pleased  with  the  present  tendency  of  events.  But,  sir,  there  are 
those  who  are  dissatisfied,  and  who  are  inclined  to  invoke  a  cer- 
tain deity — I  think  a  false  deity— which  presides  over  a  portion 
of  this  Union;  a  deity  which  has  been  invoked  by  great  men  on 
great  occasions,  and  by  little  men  on  little  occasions,  for  a  long 
time  past — a  deity  in  whose  expected  presence  both  the  people 
and  the  politicians  have  sometimes  stood  aghast — 'when  he,'  in 
prospect  only,  'from  his  horrid  hair  shook  pestilence  and  war.' 
This  sulphurous  god  is  Disunion.  This  Capitol  Hill  has  been 
a  veritable  Mount  Carmel  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  upon 
which  experiments  have  been  tried  with  this  bogus  deity.  One 
day  upon  Mount  Carmel  was  sufficient  to  determine  the  destiny 
of  Baal  and  his  prophets.  But  here,  we,  the  most  patient  people 
in  the  world,  witness  these  invocations  year  after  year,  with  ex- 
emplary endurance,  expecting  that  the  great  Is-to-be  will  some 
time  come.  And  you  and  I,  Mr.  Chairman,  even  during  the 
present  session  of  Congress,  have  witnessed  attempts  to  kindle 
here  the  fires  upon  the  altar  of  Southern  rights.  But  the  sacrifice, 
the  altar,  and  the  spectators  were  as  cold  as  alabaster.  The 
prophets  only  were  warm;  but  they  were  warm,  not  from  the 
presence  of  the  god,  but  from  his  absence.  He  does  not  make 
his  appearance.  The  great  Is-to-be  does  not  come.  He  has  either 
gone  on  a  very  long  journey,  or  else  he  is  in  a  very  deep  sleep. 

"  Well,  sir,  shall  we  have  this  deity  of  Disunion  invoked  for- 
ever? Who  is  to  blame?  If  the  North  has  given  cause,  what 
have  we  done?  What  cause  of  disunion  has  ever  proceeded  from 
us?  Have  you  not  had  everything  your  own  way?  Have  we  not 
let  you  have  the  Democratic  party  to  use  as  you  please  ? 
[Laughter.]  Have  you  not  had  the  Government  for  a  long  time? 
And  have  we  not  let  you  use  it  just  as  you  had  a  mind  to?  We, 
sir,  were  busy  about  our  commerce,  extending  it  around  the 
world;  about  our  railroads;  our  internal  improvements;  our  col- 
leges, and  all  those  things  which  interest  our  people.  We  knew 
that  you  had  a  taste  for  governing,  and  that  by  the  indulgence 
you  might  be  gratified  without  serious  injury  to  us.  For  many 
years  you  have  had  your  own  way,  but  now  you  come  here  and 
cry  out  '  disunion.1  Why,  what  more  can  we  do? 

"  Well,  it  may  be  that  we  have  encouraged  a  mistake  on  your 
part.  It  may  be  that  we  have  given  you  some  reason  to  suppose 


256  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

that  this  temporary  courtesy  of  governing,  which  we  have  ex- 
tended, was  a  permanent  right.  However,  if  you  have  fallen 
into  that  error,  we  will,  perhaps,  at  some  future  time  disabuse 
and  correct  you.  But  whatever  blame  there  is  anywhere,  what- 
ever cause  there  is  for  disunion,  must  attach  to  the  action  of  the 
slave  power,  commanding  and  controlling  the  Democratic  party, 
and  to  no  one  else  in  the  country.  Therefore,  at  this  time,  I  come 
with  exultation — not,  to  be  sure,  with  malignant  exultation — to 
speak  for  a  few  moments  upon  the  decline  and  fall  of  slavery — 
nay,  sir,  further,  upon  the  suicide  of  slavery  in  this  land.  I  will 
show  you  by  what  acts  the  two  most  important  pillars  of  its  sup- 
port have  been  removed,  and  that  the  whole  system  of  slavery 
must  therefore  fall.  And  these  two  events  have  been  accom- 
plished, if  not  by  its  direct  efforts,  at  least  by  the  connivance  of 
this  same  party,  impelled  by  this  same  controlling  agency. 

"  I  will  first  show  you  how  the  moral  power  of  this  institu- 
tion has  been  destroyed,  by  what  act,  and  then  I  will  show  you 
how  and  by  what  act  its  political  power  is  forever  doomed.  But, 
sir,  how  did  an  institution  like  this  ever  have  a  moral  power  is 
a  question  for  us  to  examine.  In  the  first  place,  we  are  told  by 
Southern  men  that  we  have  a  nation  of  heathen  in  our  land;  and 
we  are  told  by  the  same  authority  that  we  have  an  institution 
here  for  their  regeneration.  Now,  sir,  if  we  have,  from  necessity, 
a  nation  of  heathen  in  our  land,  and  if  slavery  is  an  institution 
for  their  regeneration,  it  is  very  clear  that  slavery  has  a  moral 
power.  But,  says  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr.  Gartrell], 
speaking  of  negroes, '  They  are  idle,  dissolute,  improvident,  lazy, 
unthrifty,  who  think  not  of  to-morrow,  who  provide  but  scantily 
for  to-day.' 

' '  I  will  also  give  you  other  proof.     Here  it  is  : 

' ' '  Who  would  credit  it,  that  in  these  years  of  benevolent  and 
successful  missionary  effort  in  this  Christian  republic,  there  are 
over  two  millions  of  human  beings  in  the  condition  of  heathen, 
and,  in  some  respects,  in  a  worse  condition?  From  long-con- 
tinued and  close  observation,  we  believe  their  moral  and  religious 
condition  is  such  that  they  may  justly  be  regarded  as  the  heathen 
of  this  Christian  country.' — Committee  of  Synod  of  South  Car- 
olina and  Georgia,  in  1833. 

"  'After  making  all  reasonable  allowances,  our  colored  pop- 
ulation can  be  considered,  at  the  best,  but  semi-heathens.' — Ken- 


SUICIDE   OF  SLAVERY.  257 

tucky  Union's  Circular  to  the  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  Kentucky, 
1834. 

"  '  There  seems  to  be  an  almost  entire  absence  of  moral  prin- 
ciple among  the  mass  of  our  colored  population.' — C.  W.  Gooch, 
Esq., Prize  Essay  on  Agriculture  in  Virginia. 

"  '  There  needs  no  stronger  illustration  of  the  doctrine  of  de- 
pravity than  the  state  of  human  nature  on  plantations  in  gener- 
al. ...  Their  advance  in  years  is  but  a  progression  to  the  higher 
grades  of  iniquity.' — lion.  C.  C.  Pinckney,  Address  before  tlw 
South  Carolina  Agricultural  Society,  at  Charleston,  1829,  second 
edition,  pages  10, 12. 

"  The  Maryville  (Tennessee)  Intelligencer  of  October  4, 1835, 
says  of  the  slaves  of  the  South-west,  that  their  '  condition,  through 
time,  will  be  second  only  to  that  of  the  wretched  creatures  in 
hell.' 

"  Here,  then,  is  a  field  for  great  missionary  labor;  and  it  is  fort- 
unate that,  under  these  circumstances,  we  happen  to  have  an  in- 
stitution which  is  perfectly  adapted  to  the  regeneration  of  a  lost 
and  ruined  race.  I  quote  from  the  honorable  member  from  the 
State  of  Virginia,  in  a  speech  delivered  here,  some  time  ago,  in 
the  House  of  Representatives: 

"'I  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  a  noble  one;  that 
it  is  necessary  for  the  good,  the  well-being,  of  the  negro  race. 
Looking  to  history,  I  go  further,  and  I  say,  in  the  presence  of  this 
assembly,  and  under  all  the  imposing  circumstances  surround- 
ing me,  that  I  believe  it  is  God's  institution.  Yes,  sir,  if  there  is 
anything  in  the  action  of  the  great  Author  of  us  all;  if  there  is 
anything  in  the  conduct  of  his  chosen  people ;  if  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  conduct  of  Christ  himself,  who  came  upon  this  earth, 
and  yielded  up  his  life  as  a  sacrifice,  that  all  through  his  death 
might  live;  if  there  is  anything  in  the  conduct  of  his  apostles, 
who  inculcated  obedience  on  the  part  of  slaves  towards  their 
masters  as  a  Christian  duty,  then  we  must  believe  that  the  insti- 
tution is  from  God.' — Hon.  Wm.  Smith,  of  Virginia,  in  a  speech 
in  the  House  of  Representative*. 

"Again,  I  quote  from  the  speech  of  the  honorable  gentleman 
from  Georgia  [Mr.  Gartrell],  in  regard  to  this  same  sentiment: 

"  'Every  sentiment  expressed  in  that  eloquent  extract  meets 
my  hearty  approbation.  As  a  Christian  man,  believing  in  the 
teachings  of  Holy  Writ,  I  am  here  to-day  before  a  Christian  na- 


258  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

tion  to  reaffirm  and  reannounce  the  conclusion  to  which  that 
distinguished  gentleman  came — that  this  institution,  however 
much  it  may  have  been  reviled,  is  of  God.' 

"  Mr.  Chairman  these  are  not  the  only  authorities  on  this  sub- 
ject. You  and  I  have  heard  from  the  other  side,  day  after  day, 
quotations  from  the  Bible,  intending  to  prove  the  same  thing;  and 
you  and  I  know  that  there  are  honest  men  in  the  slave  States  who 
believe  that  this  is  a  fact.  I  have  seen  such  men  myself,  and 
have  conversed  with  them.  They  have  told  me  that  slavery  was 
an  absolute  curse;  and  that  the  only  reason  why  they  held  their 
slaves  a  day  was  that  they  owed  them  certain  religious  duties, 
and  must  keep  them  to  look  after  their  spiritual  welfare.  They 
feared  that  if  their  slaves  were  cast  loose  upon  the  world,  with 
nobody  to  look  after  their  spiritual  interests,  they  would  be  spir- 
itually lost.  I  heard  this  from  a  gentleman  from  Kentucky, 
and  again  from  a  gentleman  from  Augusta,  Georgia,  and  I  believe 
in  my  heart  that  both  of  these  gentlemen  were  honest  in  these 
views. 

"  I  am  not  here  to  impugn  any  man's  motives.  I  put  this  upon 
the  ground  that  is  claimed  by  Southern  men ;  and  when  I  lis- 
tened to  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  reading  honestly  from 
the  sacred  volume  in  defence  of  this  institution,  as  coming  from 
God,  and  as  a  means  for  the  regeneration  of  a  heathen  race  in  our 
land,  I  felt  impelled  to  use  the  language  of  the  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles,  which  he  employed  on  Mars  Hill :  '  Oh,  Athenians,  I 
perceive  that  in  all  things  ye  are  exceedingly  given  to  religion.' 
[Laughter.]  Now,  sir,  since  this  institution  has  done  all  it  ever 
can  in  this  capacity,  and  since  it  is  now  destroyed  as  a  converting 
and  regenerating  power,  I  stand  here  to  give  it  its  proper  place 
in  ecclesiastical  history,  for  its  right  place  it  has  never  yet  had. 

"In  order  to  understand  what  position  it  is  entitled  to,  we 
must,  to  some  extent,  speak  by  comparison,  because  we  cannot 
speak  absolutely  on  these  matters  of  religion.  The  religious 
journals  of  the  free  States  have  oftentimes  most  unreasonably 
exulted  over  our  religious  efforts,  when  they  contrasted  them 
with  the  efforts  of  our  Southern  brethren.  I  have  seen  placed 
in  parallel  columns,  in  Northern  journals,  the  contributions  of 
the  free  States  and  the  contributions  of  the  slave  States;  and 
there  were  mighty  words  of  exultation,  unbecoming  a  Christian 
journal  or  Christian  people  at  any  time,  when  it  was  shown  that 


SUICIDE  OF  SLAVERY.  259 

our  contributions  for  foreign  missions  were  a  hundred-fold  more 
than  yours.  It  is  true  we  make  more  contributions.  The  city 
of  Boston  gives,  for  foreign  missions,  perhaps  more  than  all  the 
slave  States;  and  the  city  of  New  York  perhaps  more  than  Bos- 
ton. But  what  of  that?  "VVe  give  a  few  cents  apiece,  and  only 
a  few  cents,  for  foreign  missions  each  year,  whicli  amounts  to  a 
great  sum,  because  we  are  a  great  people.  We  send  men  to 
heathen  nations  far  over  the  water,  to  tell  them  about  their  fut- 
ure destiny.  We  are  careful  not  to  send  our  best  men;  we  keep 
our  Notts  and  Waylands,  and  our  Beechers  and  Cheevers,  at 
home;  but  sometimes  a  Judson  escapes  from  us  before  we  know 
what  he  is.  This  is  about  the  extent  we  submit  to  self-sacrifice 
for  the  sake  of  the  heathen. 

"  Is  there  any  cause  for  exultation  in  this,  when  we  see  what 
our  Southern  brethren  have  done  and  are  doing  ?  When  have 
we  ever  taken  the  heathen  to  our  hearth-stones  and  to  our  bosoms? 
When  have  we  ever  admitted  the  heathen  to  social  communion 
with  ourselves  and  our  children?  When  have  we  ever  taken  the 
heathen  to  our  large  cities  to  show  them  the  works  of  art,  or  to 
the  watering-places  to  show  them  fashionable  society  and  beau- 
tiful scenery?  Did  you  ever  see  a  Yankee  at  the  White  Sulphur 
Springs  shedding  a  benign  religious  influence  over  a  little  con- 
gregation of  heathen  companions?  [Laughter.]  We  have  pious 
women  in  the  Northern  States,  whose  bright  example  has  made 
attractive  the  paths  of  virtue  and  religion.  Conspicuous  among 
them,  in  every  good  work,  are  the  wives  of  our  ministers  and 
deacons;  but  not  one  of  these,  within  the  range  of  my  acquaint- 
ance, would  consider  herself  qualified,  either  by  nature  or  by 
grace,  to  be  chamber-maid,  dry-nurse,  and  spiritual  adviser  to  ten 
or  twenty  heathens  in  her  own  family.  But,  sir,  had  these  worthy 
dames  been  noble  dames;  had  they  come  down  to  us  from  the 
blood  of  the  Norman  kings,  through  the  bounding  pulses  of  sun- 
dry cavaliers,  and  then  had  been  willing  to  assume  these  humble 
offices  of  Christian  charity,  we  should  have  believed  the  time,  so 
often  prayed  for,  had  already  come,  when  '  kings  should  be  fa- 
thers and  queens  nursing  mothers  in  the  Church.'  AVhere,  then, 
is  the  ground  for  this  exultation  on  the  part  of  the  North?  I  tell 
you  that  it  cannot  be  prompted  by  anything  but  a  rotund,  bul- 
bous self-righteousness.  So  much,  then,  for  the  social  sacrifices 
of  our  Southern  brethren. 


260  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"  What  other  sacrifices  have  they  made  to  regenerate  this  race? 
Great  moral  and  intellectual  sacrifices.  I  will  read  what  South- 
ern men  say  on  this  subject. 

"Judge  Tucker,  of  Virginia,  said  in  1801: 

'"I  say  nothing  of  the  baneful  effects  of  slavery  on  our  moral 
character,  because  you  know  I  have  long  been  sensible  of  this 
point.' 

"  The  Presbyterian  Synod  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  said, 
in  their  report  of  1834: 

"  'Those  only  who  have  the  management  of  these  servants 
know  what  the  hardening  effect  of  it  is  upon  their  own  feelings 
towards  them.' 

"Judge  Summers,  of  Virginia,  said,  in  a  speech  in  1832,  in  al- 
most the  same  words: 

"  '  A  slave  population  produces  the  most  pernicious  effect  upon 
the  manners,  habits,  and  character  of  those  among  whom  it  ex- 
ists.' 

"Judge  Nichols,  of  Kentucky,  in  a  speech  in  1837,  said: 

"  'The  deliberate  convictions  of  my  most  matured  considera- 
tion are,  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  a  most  serious  injury 
to  the  habits,  manners,  and  morals  of  our  white  population;  that 
it  leads  to  sloth,  indolence,  dissipation,  and  vice.' 

"  So  said  Mr.  Jefferson: 

"  '  The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and 
morals  uncontaminated'  [in  the  midst  of  slavery]. 

"John  Randolph,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  said: 

"  '  Where  are  the  trophies  of  this  infernal  traffic?  The'hand- 
cuffs,  the  manacle,  the  blood-stained  cowhide!  What  man  is 
worse  received  in  society  for  being  a  hard  master?  Who  denies 
the  hand  of  sister  or  daughter  to  such  monsters?' 

"I  might  quote  a  hundred  other  Southern  authorities  of  the 
same  kind,  showing  the  baneful  effect  of  this  institution  upon 
the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  the  South.  I  might  also 
quote  from  the  United  States  Census.  I  have  the  papers  here, 
but  time  will  not  allow. 

"Now,  in  addition  to  these  moral  and  intellectual  sacrifices 
which  our  Southern  brethren  admit,  there  are  pecuniary  sacri- 
fices which  you  know  to  be  very  great;  indeed,  had  Virginia 
been  free  fifty  years  ago,  had  she  been  exempt  from  this  great 
tendency  to  Christianize  the  African  race,  she  would  have  been 


SUICIDE   OF  SLAVERY.  261 

worth  more  this  day  than  all  the  Atlantic  States  south  of  New 
Jersey.  And  should  she  by  any  chance  become  free,  you  will 
see  her  wealth  and  her  population  increase  in  proportion  as  this 
missionary  spirit  is  diminished.  [Laughter.]  It  is  true,  our 
Southern  brethren,  impressed  with  this  great  idea  of  Christian- 
izing the  African  race,  having  for  their  only  ambition  to  present 
the  souls  of  their  negroes,  without  spot  or  blemish,  before  the 
throne  of  the  Eternal,  have  sacrificed  almost  everything.  I  could 
quote  from  Southern  men  upon  this  subject.  The  sagacious 
statesman  who  governs  the  Old  Dominion,  in  a  speech  a  few 
years  ago,  said : 

"'But  in  all  the  four  cardinal  resources — wonderful  to  tell, 
disagreeable  to  tell,  shameful  to  announce — but  one  source  of  all 
four,  in  time  past,  has  been  employed  to  produce  wealth.  We 
have  had  no  work  in  manufacturing,  and  commerce  has  spread 
its  wings  and  flown  from  us,  and  agriculture  has  only  skimmed 
the  surface  of  mother  earth.  Three  out  of  the  four  cardinal 
virtues  have  been  idle;  our  young  men,  over  their  cigars  and 
toddy,  have  been  talking  politics,  and  the  negroes  have  been  left 
to  themselves,  until  we  have  all  grown  poor  together.' 

"But  trials  and  tribulations  and  poverty  have  ever  beset  the 
path-way  of  the  saints.  In  the  earliest  clays,  they  'wandered 
about  in  sheep -skins  and  goat- skins,  persecuted,  afflicted,  tor- 
mented.' Even  now,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  condition  of 
our  Southern  brethren  is  not  much  improved,  since  they  are  com- 
pelled '  to  chase  the  stump-tailed  steer  over  sedge  patches  which 
outshine  the  sun  to  get  a  tough  steak,'  and  to  listen  to  the  per- 
petual cry  of  'Debts!  debts!'  'Taxes!  taxes!' 

"In  this  age  of  material  progress,  you  have  seen  the  North 
outstrip  you;  but,  with  true  Christian  patience  and  Christian  de- 
votion, you  have  adhered  to  the  great  work  of  regenerating  the 
heathen.  [Laughter.]  Through  evil  report  and  through  good 
report,  reproached  and  maligned  abroad  by  those  who  did  not 
understand  your  motives,  and,  worst  of  all,  sometimes  abused  at 
home  by  the  ungrateful  objects  of  your  Christian  charity,  you 
have  still  pressed  on  towards  the  mark  of  your  high  calling. 
Now,  sir,  when  was  there  ever  a  class  of  men  so  devoted  and  so 
self-sacrificing?  I  have  read  the  history  of  the  Apostles;  I  have 
read  the  history  of  the  Reformers,  of  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  of 
the  Huguenots,  and  of  the  Crusaders;  and,  I  tell  you,  not  in  one 


262  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

or  all  of  these  have  I  seen  any  such  heroic  self-sacrifice  for  the 
good  of  another  race,  or  for  the  good  of  other  men,  as  I  do  see 
in  the  history  of  these  slave  States.  I  have  seen  Fox's  '  Book  of 
Martyrs,'  but  there  is  nothing  in  that  to  compare  at  all  with  the 
martyrs  of  the  South.  The  Census  of  the  United  States  is  the 
greatest  book  of  martyrs  ever  printed.  [Laughter.]  Other  books 
treat  of  martyrs  as  individuals;  the  Census  of  the  United  States 
treats  of  them  by  counties  and  by  States.  I  can  see  how  a  man, 
impressed  with  a  grand  and  noble  sentiment,  should  perhaps,  in 
excitement  or  in  an  emergency,  give  up  his  life  in  support  of  it; 
but  I  cannot  see  how  a  man  can  sacrifice  his  friends,  his  family, 
and  his  country  for  a  religious  idea  or  an  abstraction. 

"Here,  then,  sir,  is  the  position  of  our  Southern  brethren  upon 
this  subject.  But  the  worst  is  yet  to  be  told — the  doleful  con- 
clusion of  the  whole  matter.  They  have  made  sacrifices,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  they  were  entitled  to  the  rewards  for  them;  and 
I  doubt  not  that  they  have  often  consoled  themselves  in  contem- 
plating the  rewards  in  the  future  which  must  await  them  for 
such  good  services  in  the  present.  I  have  no  doubt,  sir,  that  of- 
tentimes, seeing  they  have  not  treasures  laid  up  on  earth,  they 
supposed  they  had  treasures  laid  up  in  heaven.  [Laughter.]  But 
just  at  that  time,  when  they  seemed  to  be  almost  in  the  fruition 
of  their  labors,  when  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Ander- 
son], in  great  exultation  of  spirit,  was  speaking  of  the  institution 
that  had  raised  the  negro  from  barbarism  to  Christianity  and 
civilization,  and  when  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  [Mr.  Hughes] 
had  caught  the  inspiration,  and  said  that  although  the  body  of 
the  African  might  be  toiling  under  the  lash,  '  his  soul  was  free, 
and  could  converse  on  the  subliraest  principles  of  science  and 
philosophy ' — when  faith  had  almost  become  sight — just  then, 
sir,  out  conies  the  Supreme  Court  with  the  decision  that  A  NE- 
GRO HAS  NO  SOUL!  [Laughter.] 

"  '  Angels  and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us!'  All  these  treas- 
ures that  were  supposed  to  have  been  laid  up  'where  neither 
moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves  do  not  break 
through  nor  steal,'  have  been  invaded  by  the  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  More 
than  two  centuries  of  prayers  aud  tears,  of  heroic  self-sacrifice 
and  Christian  devotion,  of  faith  and  hope,  of  temporal  and  spir- 
itual agony,  have  come  to  this  '  lame  aud  impotent  conclusion.' 


SUICIDE  OF  SLAVERY.  263 

[Laughter.]  The  moral  dignity  of  the  grandest  missionary  en- 
terprise of  this  age  is  annihilated. 

"As  a  Northern  man,  I  stand  here  a  disinterested  spectator  of 
these  events.  If  I  do  not  like  the  decision  of  the  court,  I  have 
a  higher  law.  The  negro  himself  can  appeal  to  the  court  of 
heaven;  but  what  refuge  has  the  Southern  Church?  [Renewed 
laughter.]  None  whatever.  This  decision  is  a  blow,  direct  and 
terrible,  fulling  with  crushing  violence  upon  our  Southern  breth- 
ren. This  Supreme  Court,  with  cruel  and  relentless  hostility, 
has  persecuted  the  Southern  Church  as  the  dragon  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse pursued  the  woman  into  the  wilderness,  seeking  to  devour 
her  offspring.  [Much  laughter.] 

"What  motives  could  have  impelled  the  court  to  this  act?  I 
have  no  doubt  a  patriotic  motive.  I  am  not  here  to  impugn  the 
motives  of  any  man,  or  of  any  set  of  men,  much  less  of  the  high- 
est judicial  tribunal  in  this  land.  No  doubt,  sir,  their  motives 
were  patriotic,  for  they  had  witnessed  the  devastation  of  this 
terrible  religious  fanaticism  through  the  South.  They  had  seen 
the  ravages  of  this  disastrous  missionary  monomania,  and  they 
determined  that  there  must  be  an  end  of  it;  and  how  could  they 
so  effectually  end  it  as  by  annihilating  at  once  the  object  of  its 
aims  and  aspirations.  That,  sir,  they  have  done. 

"Here,  then,  endeth  the  moral  power  of  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

"I  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  the  event  which  just  as 
surely  has  doomed  to  destruction  the  political  power  of  that  in- 
stitution— I  mean  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  meas- 
ure in  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill.  That  act,  sir,  I 
will  show  to  you — if  it  ever  was  committed  by  the  slave  power 
— to  have  been  a  suicidal  act.  What  need  was  there  for  repeal- 
ing that  Compromise,  or  of  admitting  slavery  into  Kansas  by  law? 
Was  not  the  South  sure  enough  of  the  Territory  as  it  was  before? 
I  think — and  this  is  my  honest  conviction — that  had  it  not  been 
for  that  act,  Kansas  would  have  been  inevitably  a  slave  State. 
We  of  the  North  had  no  particular  interest  in  that  Territory. 
It  was  put  down  in  our  geographies  as  the  great  American  des- 
ert. We  had  not  considered  it  of  much  importance;  but  we  re- 
lied on  the  law  to  keep  slavery  out  of  it,  and  to  preserve  it  to 
freedom.  We  of  the  North  have  had  too  high  an  idea  of  the 
power  of  the  General  Government  and  of  law,  either  for  free- 


264  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

dom  or  against  freedom.  Sir,  this  General  Government  has  but 
little  power  over  this  question.  It  is  not  a  motive  power.  It  is 
only  a  registry,  an  exponent  of  power.  It  is  the  log-book  of  the 
ship  of  State,  and  not  the  steam-engine  that  propels  the  ship,  or 
the  wind  that  fills  the  canvas.  We  would  like  to  have  the  log- 
book kept  right,  to  show  us  our  true  position ;  but  we  do  not 
now  consider  the  Government  as  the  motive  power.  The  motive 
power  of  this  nation,  as  of  all  nations,  is  the  people  in  their 
homes;  and  as  the  people  in  their  homes  are,  so  is  your  character 
and  so  is  your  progress.  If  the  people  in  their  homes  in  Kansas 
had  been  pro-slavery,  what  could  the  North  have  opposed  to  it? 
It  was  emigration,  and  emigration  only,  that  could  have  made 
Kansas  a  State,  either  slave  or  free.  The  great  law  that  governs 
emigration  is  this-  that  emigration  follows  the  parallels  of  lati- 
tude westward.  Under  that  law,  Kansas  would  have  been  set- 
tled entirely  by  a  pro-slavery  people,  as  was  the  southern  part  of 
Indiana,  and  as  was  the  southern  part  of  Illinois.  We  in  the 
North,  trusting  in  the  protection  of  the  law,  would  have  had  no 
remedy.  People  in  favor  of  slavery  would  have  gone  there,  and 
if  they  were  compelled  at  first  to  adopt  a  free  Constitution  in 
order  to  shape  their  institutions  according  to  any  law  concern- 
ing the  Territory,  they  might  have  soon  reversed  that  position. 
In  fact,  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  has  now  made  any 
such  thing  unnecessary.  They  might  have  formed  just  such  a 
Constitution  as  they  pleased.  Well,  then,  we  would  thus,  in  all 
probability,  have  had  Kansas  a  slave  State  without  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill.  But  the  passage  of  that  bill,  if  slavery  had  been 
certain  before,  seemed  to  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  North 
to  make  it  almost  inevitable.  Histor}'  warranted  this  fear.  Judg- 
ing from  the  case  of  Indiana,  there  seemed  to  be  no  chance  what- 
ever for  freedom  in  Kansas,  after  the  opportunity  for  slavery  to 
enter  there  had  been  given.  There  was  Missouri  on  the  confines 
of  the  Territory — and  the  most  densely  peopled  portion  of  Mis- 
souri, too.  Freedom-loving  men,  desiring  to  go  to  that  Territory, 
would  have  had  to  travel  hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles. 
The  men  who  lived  on  the  line  of  Kansas,  as  well  as  other  South- 
ern men  who  entertained  the  same  idea — though  they  did  not  ex- 
press it  then,  for  fear  of  losing  the  bill — anticipated  that  the  pas- 
sage of  the  bill  would  settle  the  question  for  slavery  in  Kansas 
forever.  That  was  the  evidence  of  the  early  history  of  Indiana. 


SUICIDE  OF  SLAVERY.  265 

When  that  Territory  was  opened  for  settlement,  a  few  slave- 
holders, perhaps  a  dozen  or  a  score,  went  over  from  Kentucky, 
and,  contrary  to  the  wishes  both  of  the  President  and  Congress, 
contrary  to  the  ordinance  of  1787,  established  slavery;  and  they 
obtained  such  control  over  that  young  Territory  that  petitions, 
signed  by  many  of  the  inhabitants,  praying  Congress  to  suspend 
the  prohibition  of  slavery,  were  presented  to  Congress,  year  after 
year,  from  1803  to  1807.  These  few  slave-holders  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Indiana  acquired  such  control  over  the  inhabitants  of 
that  Territory,  because  they  were  an  organization,  as  slavery  is 
everywhere  and  at  all  times  an  organization.  It  was  a  concen- 
tration of  capital,  a  concentration  of  influence,  and  a  concentra- 
tion of  power,  which  our  emigrants  from  the  free  States,  coming 
one  by  one,  were  unable  to  resist ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
overwhelming  population  which  poured  in  from  the  North  in 
1807  and  1808,  the  prohibition  of  slavery  would  have  been  sus- 
pended. Had  it  not  been  for  John  Eandolph,  it  would  have 
been  suspended  in  1803;  and  had  it  not  been  for  Mr.  Franklin 
in  the  Senate,  it  might  have  been  suspended  in  1807;  and  both 
of  these  were  Southern  men. 

"Well,  sir,  I  have  said  that  slave-holders  are  everywhere  an 
organization.  There  is  a  community  of  interest,  a  bond  of  feel- 
ing and  of  sympathy,  which  combines  and  concentrates  all  ef- 
forts to  defend  slavery  where  it  is,  and  to  extend  it  to  places 
where  it  is  not.  I  will  quote  from  the  last  number  of  De  Bow's 
Review,  everywhere  acknowledged  to  be  good  Southern  authority. 
In  an  article  defending  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Compa- 
ny, the  writer  says: 

"'We  of  the  South  have  been  practising  "Organized  Emi- 
gration "  for  a  century,  and  hence  have  outstripped  the  North  in 
the  acquisition  of  land.  The  owner  of  a  hundred  slaves,  who, 
with  his  overseer,  moves  to  the  West,  carries  out  a  self-support- 
ing, self-insuring,  well-organized  community.  This  is  the  sort 
of  "Organized  Emigration"  which  experience  shows  suits  the 
South  and  the  negro  race,  whilst  Mr.  Thayer's  is  equally  well 
adapted  to  the  whites.' 

"Then,  what  fault  can  be  found  with  our  efforts  to  organize 

freedom  by  means  of  our  emigrant  aid  societies,  that  enable  our 

citizens  to  go  to  the  Territories  in  companies  of  twenty,  fifty, 

one  hundred,  or  two  hundred,  to  take  possession  of  the  West 

12 


366  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

and  to  locate  there  the  institutions  under  -which  they  choose  to 
live? 

"  And  here  I  come  to  the  defence  of  this  association.  It  has 
been  assailed,  time  and  again,  on  this  floor,  and  I  have  never 
been  allowed  even  the  privilege  of  putting  questions  to  its  assail- 
ants. The  gentleman  from  Missouri  [Mr.  Anderson]  called  it 
'illegal  and  unconstitutional.'  It  has  been  so  assailed  by  the 
successor  of  Millard  Fillmore.  But  where  is  the  proof?  Which 
of  its  acts  has  been  shown  to  be  illegal  or  unconstitutional?  If 
it  was  illegal  and  unconstitutional,  why  has  not  the  organization 
been  crushed  by  the  courts  ?  We  contend  that  any  organization 
which  is  allowed  to  continue  its  existence  from  year  to  year,  and 
to  carry  on  its  business,  has  the  presumption,  at  least,  of  a  legal 
right  to  do  so.  We  claim  that  for  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company. 

"But  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  professes  to  have  authority 
in  regard  to  this  matter.  He  has  said  that  we  may  employ  this 
emigrant  aid  society  in  promoting  emigration  to  Central  America 
and  to  foreign  countries,  but  that  we  must  '  beware '  how  we 
do  so  in  colonizing  the  Territories  of  this  Government.  Mr. 
Chairman,  if  the  gentleman  from  Missouri  has  any  authority  in 
these  premises  I  hope  he  will  exercise  it.  I  ask  him  to  publish 
a  hand-book  for  emigrants,  telling  us  how  we  may  go  into  a  Ter- 
ritory; whether  we  may  ride  or  must  go  on  foot;  whether  we 
may  take  our  wives  and  children  with  us,  or  must  leave  them  at 
home;  whether  we  may  take  some  of  our  neighbors  with  us, 
with  their  agricultural  implements  and  steam-engines,  or  whether 
we  must  go  into  the  Territories  without  any  neighbors  what- 
ever; whether  we  may  get  horses  or  oxen  from  the  free  States, 
or  whether  we  must  content  ourselves  to  take  mules  from  the 
State  of  Missouri.  [Laughter.] 

"Now,  sir,  let  us  have  not  only  the  book,  but  the  reasons  for  it. 
Let  us  know  how  far  we  may  go,  according  to  the  law,  in  this 
matter  of  emigration.  I  recommend  the  gentleman  from  Mis- 
souri to  take  some  lessons  from  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi 
[Mr.  Quitman]  on  the  rights  of  emigration.  I  think  he  can  get 
broader  views  upon  this  subject  if  he  will  consult  that  gentle- 
man, and  I  think  he  will  allow  Northern  men  to  go  to  the  places 
which  they  have  a  right  to  go  to  by  the  law  of  this  land,  in  such 
society,  if  it  be  law-abiding,  as  they  may  choose  to  select  for 
themselves. 


SUICIDE  OF  SLAVERY.  267 

"I  have  said  that  the  great  general  law  of  emigration  is  that 
the  emigrants  shall  follow  the  parallels  of  latitude  iu  this  coun- 
try. There  are  some  exceptions  to  this.  The  gold  in  California 
led  our  emigrants  from  the  extreme  north  across  many  parallels 
of  latitude.  That  was  a  sufficient  disturbing  cause.  The  ex- 
istence of  slavery  in  the  slave  States  of  this  country  has  driven 
thirty-five  out  of  every  hundred  emigrants  across  Northern  par- 
allels to  the  free  States  of  the  Union.  That  was  another  great 
and  powerful  cause.  But  there  is  another  cause  sufficient  to 
carry  emigration  southward  over  parallels  of  latitude.  That  is, 
the  argument  of  cheap  lands,  with  the  additional  advantage  of 
organized  emigration.  The  objections  that  have  heretofore  ex- 
isted among  Northern  men  to  settling  in  Southern  States  are,  by 
this  mode  of  emigrating,  entirely  obviated.  The  Northern  man, 
with  his  family  of  children,  would  not  heretofore  go  into  a 
Southern  Slate  in  the  absence  of  schools  and  churches.  But 
when,  combined  with  one  or  two  hundred  or  one  or  two  thou- 
sand of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  he  goes  into  a  slave  State,  he 
carries  with  him  schools  and  churches  and  the  mechanic  arts, 
all  these  difficulties  are  obviated;  and,  besides,  he  has  the  in- 
ducement of  going  where  the  land  can  be  bought  at  slave-State 
prices,  in  the  expectation  of  finding  it  come  up  probably  in  a 
few  years  to  free-State  prices,  which  are  five  or  six  times  greater 
than  slave-State  prices.  Here  is  the  great  inducement  of  in- 
creasing wealth.  Let  a  colony  start  from  Massachusetts,  and 
settle  on  almost  any  land  in  the  State  of  Virginia — in  Greenville, 
Southampton,  Dinwiddie,  or  Accomack,  where  the  lands  do  not 
average  so  high  as  three  dollars  an  acre,  by  the  census  of  1850 — 
and  the  very  day  they  settle  there  the  value  of  the  land  is  more 
than  doubled.  There  is  better  land  for  sale  to-day  in  Tennessee 
and  North  Carolina,  for  fifty  cents  per  acre,  than  can  be  bought 
for  ten  times  that  sum  in  any  free  State. 

"How  can  such  an  appeal  to  the  emigrating  population  of  the 
North,  in  favor  of  organized  emigration  to  the  slave  States,  be 
resisted  ?  I  know  of  no  means  of  resisting  it.  Certainly  you 
can  have  no  reason  for  resisting  it,  but  every  reason  to  encour- 
age it.  We  do  not  come  as  your  enemies;  we  come  as  your 
friends.  We  do  not  come  to  violate  your  laws,  but  to  improve 
our  own  condition.  This  movement  southward  is  destined  to 
continue  and  to  increase.  Sir,  if  slavery  were  as  sacred  as  the 


368  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  if  it  were  defended  by  angels,  I  doubt 
•whether  it  could  withstand  the  progress  of  this  age  and  the 
monej'-making  tendencies  of  the  Yankee.  But  it  is  not  as  sa- 
cred as  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  nobody  believes  that  it  is 
defended  by  angels. 

"But,  sir,  there  begins  to  be  an  enlightened  idea  in  these  border 
slave  States  upon  this  subject.  A  year  ago,  when  I  proposed 
to  plant  a  few  colonies  in  Virginia,  several  journals  in  the  Old 
Dominion  threatened  me  with  hemp  and  grape-vine  if  I  should 
ever  set  foot  in  that  Territory.  Well,  I  thought  I  would  make 
the  experiment.  I  went  into  western  Virginia  and  into  eastern 
Kentucky.  I  addressed  numerous  audiences  in  both  of  those 
States,  and  everywhere  where  I  asked  the  people  if  they  had 
any  objection  to  their  land  being  worth  four  or  five  times  what 
it  was,  they  said  'No.'  [Laughter.]  I  asked  them  if  they  had 
any  objection  to  the  manufacture  of  ploughs  and  wagons  in 
Wayne  County.  There  never  had  been  a  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment between  the  Big  Sandy  and  Guyandotte.  Though  no 
portion  of  this  continent  is  better  situated  for  manufacturing 
purposes — having  more  than  thirty  thousand  miles  of  river  com- 
munication, which  affords  cheap  transportation  to  the  best  mar- 
kets, with  a  healthful  climate  and  inexhaustible  supplies  of  coal 
and  iron  and  timber  of  the  best  quality — yet  every  manufact- 
ured article  was  imported  into  this  natural  paradise  of  me- 
chanics. There  was  not  a  newspaper  published  between  the 
two  rivers.  I  asked  if  they  had  any  objection  to  a  good,  sub- 
stantial, business  newspaper  published  there,  and  to  have  schools 
and  churches  and  the  mechanic  arts  established  in  that  county. 
With  one  voice  they  replied  :  '  None,  whatever.  We  welcome 
you  to  our  county,  and  to  all  its  advantages.'  This  was  a  gen- 
erous and  manly  reception,  worthy  of  the  history  of  the  Old 
Dominion.  At  every  meeting  we  were  welcomed  by  the  unani- 
mous voice  of  the  people;  and  now  I  believe  that  there  are  at 
least  twelve  newspapers  in  the  State  of  Virginia  advocating 
these  colonies  coming  into  the  State.  The  sagacious  statesman 
who  is  the  Governor  of  the  Old  Dominion  gives  us  a  general 
and  most  cordial  welcome.  Well,  the  prospect  is  very  good  and 
inviting;  and  if  there  is  any  danger  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union 
— in  fact,  if  there  is  any  weak  spot  in  the  Union — I  think  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  to  patch  it  over  with  an  additional  layer 


SUICIDE   OF  SLAVERY.  269 

of  population.  [Applause.]  There  never  would  be  any  dis- 
union if  we  could  only  attend  to  it,  and  see  where  the  weak 
places  are,  and  mend  them  in  time. 

"But  there  is  another  exception  to  the  rule  I  have  laid  down. 
Central  America  will  prove  abundantly  sufficient  to  carry  emi- 
gration southward,  even  across  many  parallels  of  latitude.  She 
offers  the  grand  inducements  of  commerce,  of  a  climate  unsur- 
passed in  salubrity  (in  the  central  and  Pacific  portions),  of  a  fer- 
tile soil,  which  yields  three  crops  a  year,  and,  more  than  all, 
lands  so  cheap  that  every  man  may  buy.  We  have  already  be- 
gun to  move,  and  what  to  some  men  seemed  to  be  the  umbilical 
cord  of  an  embryo  Southern  Empire  is  likely,  by  these  means, 
to  be  cut  off,  if  it  is  not  cut  off  already.  [Laughter.]  Every- 
body knows  the  physiological  consequences. 

"Well,  sir,  I  wish  now  to  say  that  there  is  a  higher  power  than 
man's  in  relation  to  this  matter  of  freedom  in  Kansas.  It 
seemed  at  first  to  the  whole  North  that  the  project  of  establish- 
ing slavery  there  would  exclude  freedom,  and  the  whole  North 
was  intimidated  by  it.  There  was  the  greatest  reluctance  mani- 
fested to  emigration  in  that  direction  from  the  North.  Every- 
where there  was  fear;  everywhere  despair. 

"  '  As  they  drifted  on  their  path 
There  was  silence  deep  as  death, 
And  the  boldest  held  his  breath 
For  a  time.' 

"  Six  months  of  persistent  effort  in  writing  and  speaking  were 
required  to  induce  the  first  colony  of  only  thirty  men  to  go  to 
Kansas.  The  people  had  become  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
Kansas  was  destined  to  be  a  slave  State;  but  as  soon  as  the  first 
colony  had  reached  that  Territory,  and  had  founded  the  famous 
city  of  Lawrence,  the  whole  train  of  Northern  emigration  was 
turned  from  Nebraska  and  from  Minnesota  to  Kansas.  And 
they  have  filled  Kansas  with.  free-State  men — such  men  as  are 
fitted  for  the  high  position  they  occupy;  for  Kansas  is  the  geo- 
graphical centre  of  our  possessions.  Its  position  in  itself  makes  it 
the  arbiter  of  our  fate  in  all  coming  time,  destined  to  give  law 
to  all  between  the  Missouri  River  and  the  golden  gates  of  the 
Pacific,  and  to  make  its  power  felt  all  the  way  between  the 
British  possessions  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Never  were  more 


270  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

noble  men  needed  for  a  more  noble  work.  It  was  necessary 
that  Plymouth  Rock  should  repeat  itself  in  Kansas.  The  Pu- 
ritau  character  was  needed  there;  but  how  could  it  be  had,  ex- 
cept by  such  discipline  as  made  the  Puritans;  for  if  it  was  nec- 
essary that  they  should  be  elevated  like  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of 
New  England,  it  was  also  necessary  that  they  should  have  the 
training  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  They  were  peculiar  in  their 
early  history,  and  peculiar  in  their  late  history.  They  had  their 
early  education  among  the  rocks  and  mountains  of  New  Eng- 
land. I  have  known  of  great  men  in  times  past,  who  came  from 
the  forest,  who  came  from  hills  and  mountains,  but  I  never 
have  known  them  to  be  raised  on  Wilton  carpets.  These  men 
received  their  early  training  among  the  rugged  hills  of  New 
England,  where  they  waged  incessant  war  on  ice  and  granite, 
on  snow  and  gravel-stones.  It  is  there  where  they  acquired  their 
energy  and  their  power.  And,  sir,  I  think  the  Yankee  race  has 
at  least  an  octave  more  compass  than  any  other  nation  on  earth. 
I  know  a  Yankee  doughface  is  half  an  octave  meaner  than  any 
other  man.  [Laughter.] 

"Sir,  some  of  the  best  of  this  Yankee  race  went  to  Kansas. 
They  were  stigmatized,  six  months  before  they  arrived  there,  as 
thieves  and  paupers.  Well,  if  such  men  as  those  who  have  built 
Lawrence,  and  Topeka,  and  Manhattan,  and  Ossawatomie,  and 
Quindaro,  were  thieves  and  paupers,  what  do  you  think  we  re- 
spectable, well-to-do  people  will  accomplish  in  the  Old  Domin- 
ion, where  we  are  now  becoming  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
'first  families'?  These  free-State  men  of  Kansas  have  been  re- 
viled by  their  inferiors  at  both  ends  of  Pennsylvania  Avenue 
many  times  during  the  last  three  years.  The  other  day,  in  the 
other  end  of  this  Capitol,  such  men  were  denominated  slaves. 
Sir,  we  are  slaves!  I  admit  it;  but  our  only  master  is  the  Great 
Jehovah.  These  heroes  in  Kansas  having  for  their  ancestors  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  '  sons  of  sires  who  baffled  crowned  and  mitred 
tyranny,'  disciplined  in  their  early  years  by  the  rugged  teach- 
ings of  adversity,  seem  to  have  been  well  prepared  for  their  high 
mission. 

"But  the  discipline  of  worthy  example,  of  New  England  edu- 
cation, and  of  poverty  and  adversity,  were  not  enough.  The  dis- 
cipline of  tyranny  was  requisite  for  their  perfection.  This  dis- 
cipline has  been  of  use  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  David  was  not 


SUICIDE  OF  SLAVERY.  271 

fit  to  rule  over  Israel  until  he  had  been  hunted  like  a  '  partridge 
in  the  mountains'  by  the  envious  and  malignant  Saul.  Brutus 
•was  not  fitted  to  expel  the  Tarquins  until  he  had  endured  their 
tyranny  for  years.  What  would  Moses  have  done  but  for  Pha- 
raoh? Where  would  have  been  the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  where  the  Puritans  in  the  seventeenth,  and  the  Patriots 
in  the  eighteenth,  but  for  Leo  the  Tenth,  Charles  the  First,  and 
George  the  Third?  But  Charles  the  First  lost  his  head,  and 
George  the  Third  his  colonies,  for  less  tyranny  than  has  been 
practised  upon  the  people  of  Kansas  by  the  two  successors  of 
Millard  Fillmore.  If  we  thank  God  for  patriots,  we  should  also 
thank  him  for  tyrants ;  for  what  great  achievements  have  patri- 
ots ever  made  without  the  stimulus  of  tyranny?  Without  vice, 
virtue  itself  must  be  insipid ;  and  without  wicked  and  mean  men 
there  could  be  no  heroes. 

"The  brave  man  rejoices  in  the  opposition  of  the  enemy  of 
his  rights.  Wicked  and  mean  men  are  the  stepping-stones  on 
which  the  good  and  great  ascend  to  heaven  and  immortal  fame. 

"  These  miscreants,  cursed  both  by  God  and  man,  subserve  im- 
portant interests.  The  sacred  volume  which  unfolds  to  us  the 
life  and  sufferings  of  the  Saviour  of  men  makes  record  also  of 
Pontius  Pilate  and  of  Judas  Iscariot  as  necessary  agencies  in 
that  great  redemption. 

"  So  I  will  denounce  no  man  who  has  fought  against  freedom 
in  Kansas  as  entirely  useless  in  the  grand  result.  But  what  a 
team  to  draw  the  chariots  of  freedom!  Atchison  and  Stringf el- 
low  and  John  Calhoun,  with  the  two  successors  of  Millard  Fill- 
more  to  lift  at  the  wheels." 


APPENDIX  II. 

SPEECH   ON   THE   CENTRAL   AMERICAN   QUESTION. 

THE  following  speech,  on  the  "  Central  America  " 
question,  was  delivered  January  Y,  1858. 

The  Southern  representatives  had  occupied  the 
floor  several  days  upon  this  matter,  and  had  ap- 
pointed a  committee  "to  report  whether  the  soil 
and  climate  of  Central  America  were  adapted  to 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union." 

No  speech  except  this  was  made  by  a  Northern 
representative.  The  committee  never  reported, 
and  there  was  not  another  word  said  upon  the  sub- 
ject. Mr.  Thayer  said : 

"MB.  CHAIRMAN, — It  is  my  purpose  to  offer  an  amendment 
to  the  resolution  which  is  now  before  the  committee,  for  the 
purpose  of  widening  the  proposed  investigation.  I  do  not  in- 
tend to  discuss  at  all  the  topics  which  the  committee  has  been 
considering  during  the  past  three  days.  I  am  not  here  to  con- 
sider whether  Mr.  Walker  was  legally  or  illegally  arrested,  or 
whether  Commodore  Paulding  is  to  be  censured  or  applauded 
for  his  action.  I  shall  express  no  sympathy  with  the  course 
pursued  by  the  President.  I  have  no  intention  to  discuss  his 
position  in  relation  to  this  matter,  neither  is  it  my  purpose  to  en- 
ter the  lists  with  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Maynard], 
who  eulogized  the  heroism  of  Mr.  Walker — a  man  who,  claim- 
ing to  be  the  President  of  Nicaragua,  and  to  represent  in  his  own 
person  the  sovereignty  of  that  State,  surrendered  without  a  pro- 
test, and  without  a  blow,  to  a  power  upon  his  own  soil,  which 
he  claimed  to  be  an  invading  force.  Whether  this  be  heroism  I 
shall  not  now  inquire. 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  273 

"I  thrust  aside,  for  the  present,  all  questions  of  legal  techni- 
cality iu  this  matter;  all  the  mysteries  of  the  construction  of  the 
neutrality  laws;  all  these  questions  which  have  engrossed  the 
attention  of  the  House  during  the  last  three  days,  and  concern- 
ing which  everybody  has  been  speaking,  and  nobody  caring,  and 
I  come  to  that  great,  paramount,  transcendent  question  about 
which  everybody  is  caring  and  nobody  is  speaking  :  '  How  shall 
we  Americanize  Central  America?' 

"  It  may  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  I  pass  over  two  or  three 
questions  which,  in  their  natural  order,  seem  to  be  antecedent  to 
this  one.  And  these  questions  are:  First,  Do  we  wish  to  Ameri- 
canize Central  America?  Secondly,  Can  we  Americanize  Central 
America?  Thirdly,  Shall  we  Americanize  Central  America? 

"  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  say  that  whoever  has  studied  the  his- 
tory of  this  country,  and  whoever  knows  the  character  of  this 
people,  and  whoever  can  infer  their  destiny  from  their  character 
and  their  history,  knows  that  these  three  preliminary  questions 
are  already  answered  by  the  American  people — that  we  do  wish 
to  Americanize  Central  America;  that  we  can  Americanize  Cen- 
tral America;  and  that  we  shall  Americanize  Central  America. 

"And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  relation  to  the  manner  and  agen- 
cy. How  can  we  Americanize  Central  America?  Shall  we  do  it 
legally  and  fairly,  or  illegally  and  unfairly?  Shall  we  do  it  by 
conferring  a  benefit  on  the  people  of  Central  America,  or  shall 
we  do  it  by  conquest,  by  robbery,  and  violence?  Shall  we  do  it 
without  abandoning  national  laws,  and  without  violating  our 
treaty  stipulations?  Shall  we  do  it  in  accordance  with  the  law 
of  nations  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  shall  we  do  it  by 
force,  blood,  and  fire? 

"Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  my  position  is  this:  that  we  will  do  it 
legally;  that  we  will  do  it  in  accordance  with  the  highest  laws, 
human  and  divine. 

"  Then,  sir,  by  what  agency  may  we  thus  Americanize  Central 
America  ?  I  reply  to  the  question,  by  the  power  of  organized 
emigration.  That  is  abundantly  able  to  give  us  Central  America 
as  soon  as  we  want  it.  We  could  have  Americanized  Central 
America  half  a  dozen  times  by  this  power  within  the  last  three 
years,  if  there  had  been  no  danger  or  apprehension  of  meddle- 
some or  vexatious  executive  interference.  But  if  we  are  to  use 
this  mighty  power  of  organized  emigration,  we  want  a  different 

12* 


274  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

kind  of  neutrality  laws  from  those  which  we  now  have;  and, 
therefore,  I  am  desirous  that  this  committee  shall  recommend 
something  which  shall  not  subject  us  to  the  misconstruction  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  or  to  his  construction  at  all. 
I  want  these  neutrality  laws  so  plain  that  every  man  may  know 
whether  he  is  in  the  right  or  in  the  wrong,  whether  he  is  violat- 
ing those  laws  or  is  not  violating  them.  For,  Mr.  Chairman, 
•with  our  new-fashioned  kind  of  emigration,  with  our  organized 
emigration,  which  goes  in  colonies,  and  therefore  must,  of  neces- 
sity, to  some  extent  resemble  a  military  organization,  there  is 
great  danger  that  a  President  with  a  dim  intellect  may  make  a 
mistake,  and  subject  to  harassing  and  vexatious  delays,  and 
sometimes  to  loss  and  injury,  a  peaceful,  quiet  colony  going  out 
to  settle  in  a  neighboring  State. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  can  illustrate  this  position.  You,  sir,  re- 
member that  in  the  year  1856,  when  it  was  bad  travelling  across 
the  State  of  Missouri,  on  the  way  to  Kansas,  our  colonies  went 
through  the  State  of  Iowa,  and  through  ihe  Territory  of  Ne- 
braska. These  were  peaceful,  quiet  colonies  going  to  settle  in 
the  Territory  of  Kansas  by  that  long  and  wearisome  journey, 
because  it  was  bad  travelling  through  the  State  of  Missouri.  You 
remember  that  one  of  these  colonies  of  organized  emigrants, 
which  went  from  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  and  from  various 
other  Northern  States,  was  arrested  just  as  it  was  passing  over 
the  southern  boundary  of  the  Territory  of  Nebraska,  on  its  way 
to  its  future  home  in  Kansas.  It  was  a  peaceful,  quiet  colony, 
going  out  with  its  emigrant  wagons,  'all  in  a  row,'  and,  there- 
fore, looking  something  like  a  military  organization;  going  out 
with  their  women  and  their  children,  with  subsoil-ploughs  with 
colters  a  yard  long  [laughter],  with  pickaxes,  with  crow-bars, 
with  shovels,  and  with  garden-seeds.  This  beautiful  colony  was 
arrested  by  the  officials  of  the  present  Executive's  predecessor. 
It  was  by  some  mistake,  no  doubt.  Perhaps  he  took  the  turnip- 
seed  for  powder;  and  I  doubt  whether  the  case  would  have  been 
better  if  the  President  had  been  there  himself.  This  colony  was 
arrested  within  our  own  dominion.  It  was  not  an  emigration  to 
a  foreign  country,  and  there  was  no  danger  of  interference  with 
the  neutrality  laws.  These  quiet,  peaceful  colonists,  because 
their  wagons  went  in  a  row  for  mutual  defence  through  the  wild, 
uncultivated  Territory  of  Nebraska,  where  there  were  Indians, 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  275 

they  were  arrested  as  a  military  organization.  We  do  not  want, 
hereafter,  either  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  or  without 
them,  any  such  meddlesome  and  vexatious  interference  by  the 
executive  power  of  this  Government.  Therefore,  I  say,  let  us 
have  some  neutrality  laws  that  can  be  understood.  If  there  had 
been  no  apprehensions  in  the  North  about  the  neutrality  laws,  if 
we  had  not  expected  that  whatever  emigration  we  might  have 
fitted  out  for  Central  America  would  have  been  arrested  within 
the  marine  league  of  the  harbor  of  Boston,  why,  we  would  have 
colonized  Central  America  years  ago,  and  had  it  ready  for  ad- 
mission into  the  Union  before  this  time.  We  want  a  modifica- 
tion or  an  elucidation  of  the  neutrality  laws,  and  I  trust  that  it 
will  be  the  duty  of  the  committee  so  to  report. 

"Before  I  proceed  to  consider  the  power  and  benefits  of  this 
system  of  organized  emigration,  and  the  reason  why  it  ought 
not  to  be  rejected  by  this  House,  I  will  proceed,  as  briefly  as  I 
can,  to  show  the  interests  which  the  Northern  portion  of  this 
country  has  in  Americanizing  Central  America,  as  contrasted 
with  the  interests  which  the  Southern  portion  has  in  doing  the 
same  thing.  I  come,  then,  to  speak  of  the  immense  interests 
which  the  Northern  States  have  in  this  proposed  enterprise.  I 
am  astonished  that  so  far  in  tliis  debate  the  advocates  for  Amer- 
icanizing Central  America  seem  to  be  mostly  from  those  States 
which  border  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  As  yet,  I  have  heard  no 
man  from  the  Northern  States  advocating  the  same  thing.  Let 
us  look  at  the  interests  of  the  Northern  States  in  this  question, 
and  then  at  those  of  the  Southern  States. 

"These  Northern  States  are,  as  the  States  of  Northern  Eu- 
rope were  designated  by  Tacitus,  officina  gentium,  '  the  manu- 
factory of  nations.'  We  can  make  one  State  .a  year.  In  the 
last  three  years  we  have  colonized  almost  wholly  the  Territory 
of  Kansas.  We  have  furnished  settlers  to  Minnesota  and  Ne- 
braska, and  the  Lord  knows  where,  but  we  have  not  exhausted 
one-half  of  our  natural  increase.  We  have  received  accessions 
to  our  numbers  in  that  time,  from  foreign  countries  of  more 
than  one  million  of  souls,  and  now  we  have  no  relief;  we  are 
worse  off  to-day  than  we  were  when  we  began  to  colonize 
Kansas.  We  must  have  an  outlet  somewhere  for  our  surplus 
population.  [Laughter.] 

"  Sir,  I  have  a  resolution  in  my  pocket,  which  I  have  been 


276  t  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

carrying  about  for  days,  waiting  patiently  for  an  opportunity  to 
present  it  in  this  House,  instructing  the  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories to  report  a  bill  organizing  and  opening  for  settlement  the 
Indian  Territory.  Mr.  Chairman,  I  came  to  this  conclusion 
with  reluctance,  that  we  must  have  the  Indian  Territory.  But 
necessity  knows  no  law.  We  must  go  somewhere.  Something 
must  be  opened  to  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims.  [Laughter.] 
Why,  sir,  just  look  at  it.  We  are  crammed  in  between  the  At- 
lantic and  Pacific  oceans.  The  bounding  billows  of  our  emi- 
gration are  dashing  fiercely  against  both  sides  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  Obstructed  now  by  these  barriers,  this  westward- 
moving  tide  begins  to  set  back.  Will  it  flow  towards  Canada? 
Not  at  all.  It  lirxs  already  begun  to  flow  over  the  '  Old  Do- 
minion' [laughter],  and  into  other  States.  Missouri  is  almost 
inundated  with  it.  We  cannot  check  this  tide  of  flowing  emi- 
gration. You  might  as  well  try  to  shut  out  from  this  continent, 
by  curtains,  the  light  of  the  aurora  borealis.  No  such  thing  can 
be  accomplished.  This  progress  must  be  onward,  and  we  must 
have  territory.  We  must  have  territory;  and  I  think  it  most 
opportune  that  the  proposition  seems  to  be  before  the  country 
to  Americanize  Central  America.  A  better  time  could  not  be; 
for,  in  addition  to  the  population  which  we  now  have,  which  is 
immense  in  the  Northern  States,  as  I  shall  show  you  in  proceed- 
ing, this  financial  pressure  in  the  East,  and  in  the  different  na- 
tions of  Europe,  will  send  to  our  shores  in  the  year  1858  not  less 
than  half  a  million  of  men.  In  addition  to  that,  we  have  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  our  own  population  who  will 
change  localities  in  that  time.  Then,  sir,  there  are  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  men  to  be  prepared  for,  somewhere,  in 
the  year  1858 — men  enough,  sir,  to  make  eight  States,  if  we  only 
had  Territories  in  which  to  put  them,  and  if  we  only  use  them 
economically  [laughter],  as  we  are  sure  to  do  by  this  system  of 
organized  emigration. 

"Now,  could  anything  be  more  opportune,  at  this  time,  than 
to  have  this  project  submitted  to  us,  of  opening  Central  America 
to  settlement?  I  assure  you,  if  the  committee  will  report  any 
bill  which  will  enable  the  people  of  the  North,  without  larceny 
of  any  kind,  without  tyranny  of  any  kind,  to  settle  that  country, 
I  will  postpone  my  resolution  for  the  opening  of  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, at  least  until  the  next  session  of  Congress. 


CE1S7TRAL  AMERICA.  277 

"  But  it  is  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  furnishing  an  outlet  for 
our  immense  population  in  the  North  that  I  now  advocate  the 
Americanizing  of  Central  America.  The  interests  of  commerce, 
as  well  as  this  great  argument  of  necessity,  are  on  our  side.  Who 
has  the  trade  beyond  Central  America?  We  have  whale-fisheries 
in  the  Northern  Ocean,  which  build  up  great  cities  upon  the  east- 
ern shore  of  Massachusetts.  We  have  trade  with  Oregon  and 
California,  with  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  the  western  coast  of 
South  America.  We  are  opening  a  trade,  destined  to  be  an  im- 
mense trade,  with  the  empires  of  China  and  Japan,  and  we  must 
of  necessity  have  in  Central  America  certain  factors  and  certain 
commercial  agencies,  who,  in  a  very  few  years,  with  their  families 
and  relatives  and  dependants,  will  make  a  dense  population. 
I  say,  then,  that  for  the  interests  of  commerce  we  want  Central 
America  Americanized.  This  commercial  interest  is,  unfortu- 
nately, a  sectional  interest  in  these  States.  It  is,  emphatically,  a 
Northern  interest;  and  therefore,  as  a  Northern  man,  I  advocate 
especially  that  Central  America  should  be  Americanized. 

"Now,  sir,  I  said  I  was  astonished  that  gentlemen  who  come 
from  States  bordering  upon  the  Gulf  had  advocated  this  proj- 
ect, and  not  the  representatives  who  come  from  Northern 
States.  Let  us  see  the  reason  why  the  North  should  be  more 
zealous  than  the  South  in  this  movement.  In  the  State  of  Mas- 
sachusetts we  have  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  people  to  a 
square  mile,  by  the  census  of  1850.  In  the  State  of  Rhode  Isl- 
and we  have  one  hundred  and  twelve  to  the  square  mile,  by  the 
same  census.  In  the  State  of  Connecticut  we  have  seventy- 
nine.  In  the  State  of  New  York  we  have  sixty-five.  So,  you 
see,  it  was  not  fiction,  it  was  not  poetry,  not  a  stretch  of  the  im- 
agination, when  I  told  you  that  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims 
were  in  a  tight  place.  [Laughter.] 

"But  how  is  it  with  the  States  which  border  upon  the  Gulf? 
Look  at  it  and  see.  They  have,  some  of  them,  eighty-nine  hun- 
dredths  of  a  man  to  the  square  mile.  [Laughter.]  In  another 
one  we  have  one  and  the  forty -eight  hundredth  part  of  a  man  to 
the  square  mile  ;  and,  taking  them  all  together,  we  have  just 
about  three  men  to  the  square  mile  in  all  those  States  which 
border  upon  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

"Now,  sir,  it  would  be  folly  for  me  to  argue,  and  there  is  no 
kind  of  reason  for  supposing,  that  these  States  expect  to  do 


278  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

anything  about  colonizing  Central  America.  They  cannot  af- 
ford to  lose  a  man.  They  had  better  give  away  two  thousand 
dollars  than  to  lose  a  single  honest,  industrious  citizen.  They 
cannot  afford  it.  I  have  left  out  of  this  calculation,  to  be  sure, 
the  enumeration  of  the  slaves  in  those  States,  for  the  gentleman 
from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Maynard]  informed  us  that  the  question  of 
slavery  did  not  come  into  this  argument  properly,  and  I  agree 
with  him  there.  I  think  he  may  agree  with  me,  that  by  no  possi- 
bility can  slavery  ever  be  established  in  Central  America.  That 
is  my  belief.  Just  fix  your  neutrality  laws,  and  we  will  fill  up 
Central  America  before  1860  sufficiently  to  be  comfortable." 

Mr.  MATXARD.  "  With  the  permission  of  the  gentleman,  I  de- 
sire to  ask  him  whether  he  will  pledge  himself  for  his  constitu- 
ents, and  for  all  those  he  represents,  that  when  they  get  down 
there  they  will  not  make  slaves  of  the  people  they  find  there?" 

Mr.  THAYER.  "  Certainly  I  will  do  it;  and  I  will  say  more  on 
that  subject  hereafter.  I  will  say  to  the  gentlemen  upon  the 
other  side  who  have  advocated  this  right  of  emigration,  and 
have  no  personal  interest  in  this  matter,  that  they  can  have  no 
pecuniary  interest  in  it,  for  they  have  no  men  to  spare  for  this 
enterprise.  And  especially  do  I  honor  the  gentleman  from 
Mississippi  [Mr.  Quitman],  who  professed  to  be  moved  by  argu- 
ments of  philanthropy  in  relation  to  this  question,  and  who 
maintained  that  the  people  of  Central  America  were  oppressed, 
that  they  needed  our  assistance,  and  that  it  was  conferring  a 
benefit  upon  them  to  send  out  colonies  among  them  to  aid  them 
to  get  rid  of  their  oppressors.  This  is  more  than  patriotism.  It 
approaches  universal  brotherhood.  I  am  glad  that  that  gentle- 
man is  defending  the  rights  of  emigration.  No  man  prizes  those 
rights  more  highly  than  I  do.  I  think  that  I  understand  their 
power  and  their  value,  and  I  am  glad  to  welcome  among  the  list 
of  political  regenerators  the  gentleman  from  Mississippi  with 
such  large,  wide,  and  noble  views  upon  this  question.  I  do  not 
here  indorse  his  whole  speech.  I  did  not  hear  the  whole  of  it. 
I  do  not  know  what  he  said  about  Mr.  Walker,  whether  he  de- 
fends him  or  whether  he  does  not.  For  myself,  I  do  not  say 
that  I  defend  him,  or  that  I  do  not,  at  this  time.  I  wait  for  the 
report  of  our  committee,  to  know  what  are  the  facts  in  this  case, 
and  whether  he  is  fit  to  be  defended  or  not. 

"Now,  sir,  I  a'm  rejoiced  that  I  have  found  aid  and  comfort 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  279 

in  a  great  political  missionary  movement  from  a  quarter  where 
I  least  expected  it.  This  argument  of  philanthropy  is  sufficient- 
ly potent  with  the  South;  while  I  will  not  deny  that  it  is  always 
more  or  less  potent  with  the  North,  perhaps  not  so  potent  with 
the  North  as  with  the  South — very  likely  we  are  more  material 
and  less  spiritual— but  still,  I  say,  it  has  some  power  at  the  North. 
We  do  not  live  so  near  the  sun  as  do  those  gentlemen  who  bor- 
der on  the  Gulf;  but  we  live  near  enough,  to  the  sun  to  have 
some  warmth  in  our  hearts,  and  the  appeals  of  philanthropy  to 
us  are  not  made  in  vain. 

"But,  in  addition  to  that,  just  look  at  it,  sir  !  In  addition  to 
that  great  argument  of  philanthropy,  we  have  not  only  the  argu- 
ment of  necessity,  but  the  argument  of  making  money;  and  when 
you  take  those  three  arguments,  and  combine  them,  you  make  a 
great  motive  power,  which  is  sufficient,  in  ordinary  cases,  to  move 
Northern  men,  though  they  are  not  very  mobile  nor  very  fickle. 

"  So  much,  Mr.  Chairman,  for  the  comparison  of  interests  be- 
tween the  Northern  and  Southern  people  of  these  United  States 
in  relation  to  the  Americanizing  of  Central  America. 

"I  come  now  to  discuss,  briefly,  the  power  and  benefits  of  this 
new  mode  of  emigration.  And,  sir,  what  is  its  power?  I  tell 
you  its  power  is  greater  than  that  which  is  wielded  by  any  po- 
tentate or  emperor  upon  the  face  of  God's  footstool.  If  we  can 
form  a  company,  or  a  number  of  companies,  which  can  control 
the  emigration  of  this  country — the  foreign  emigration  and  native 
emigration — I  tell  you,  sir,  that  that  company,  or  those  compa- 
nies, will  have  more  power  than  any  potentate  or  emperor  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth;  and  that  company,  or  those  companies, 
may  laugh  at  politicians;  they  may  laugh,  sir,  at  the  President 
and  his  Cabinet;  at  the  Supreme  Court,  and  at  Congress;  for  all 
these  powers  of  the  Government,  great  and  mighty  as  they  are, 
can  do  nothing,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  of  this  land, 
which  can  in  any  way  interfere  with  our  progress,  or  prevent 
our  making  cities  and  States  and  nations  wherever  and  when- 
ever we  please.  Then,  sir,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  pow- 
er of  this  agency,  which,  I  tell  you,  is  the  right  one  for  us  to 
make  use  of  in  getting  Central  America  if  we  want  it,  or  in 
Americanizing  Central  America,  as  we  are  sure  to  do. 

"  Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  said  nothing  about  annexing 
Central  America  to  the  United  States.  For  myself,  I  care  noth- 


280  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

ing  about  it,  and  I  do  not  know  whether  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try are  ready  for  that  proposition  yet.  I  think,  however,  they 
would  rather  annex  a  thousand  square  leagues  of  territory  than 
to  lose  a  single  square  foot.  To  be  sure,  sir,  we  have  a  few  meu 
in  the  North  who  honestly  hate  this  Union.  I  will  not  criticise 
their  views.  I  will  not  condemn  them  for  their  views.  They 
have  a  right  to  cherish  just  what  views  they  please  in  relation  to 
this  question.  Sir,  there  are  still  a  larger  number  of  sour  and 
disappointed  politicians,  who,  though  they  do  not  profess  hatred 
to  this  Union,  do,  to  a  certain  extent,  profess  indifference  as  to 
its  continuance.  But  the  great  and  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  North,  sir,  as  a  unit,  are  determined  that  no 
force,  internal  or  external,  shall  ever  wrest  from  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  United  States  a  single  square  foot  of  our  territory,  unless 
it  first  be  baptized  in  blood  and  fire.  That  is  the  sentiment  of 
the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  the  North — that  no  portion 
of  the  territory  of  this  Government  shall  ever  be  released  from 
our  possession.  We  understand  that  this  Union  is  a  partnership 
for  life,  and  that  the  bonds  that  hold  us  together  cannot  by  any 
fatuity  be  sundered  until  this  great  Government  is  first  extin- 
guished and  its  power  annihilated.  That,  sir,  is  our  sentiment 
about  the  Union,  and  such  may  be  the  present  sentiment  about 
annexation.  But  I  have  no  doubt  what  the  future  sentiment  of 
the  country  will  be  about  annexation.  I  have  no  doubt  we  will 
have  Central  America  in  this  Government,  and  all  between  this 
and  Central  America  also. 

"  Well,  sir,  we  have  now  come  to  the  grand  missionary  age  of 
the  world,  in  which  we  do  not  send  our  preachers  alone,  per- 
plexing people  who  are  in  ignorance  and  barbarism  with  ab- 
stract theological  dogmas;  but  with  the  preachers  we  send  the 
church,  we  send  the  school,  we  send  the  mechanic  and  the  farm- 
er; we  send  all  that  makes  up  great  and  flourishing  communi- 
ties; we  send  the  powers  that  build  cities;  we  send  steam-en- 
gines, sir,  which  are  the  greatest  apostles  of  liberty  that  this 
country  has  ever  seen.  That  is  the  modern  kind  of  missionary 
emigration,  and  it  has  wonderful  power  on  this  continent,  and 
is  destined  to  have  on  the  world,  too,  for  it  is  just  as  good  against 
one  kind  of  evil  as  another;  and  it  can  just  as  well  be  exerted 
against  idol  worship  in  Hindostan  and  China  as  against  op- 
pression and  despotism  in  Central  America. 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  281 

"But  we  take  the  countries  that  are  nearest  first;  and  now 
we  propose  to  use  this  mighty  power  in  originating  a  nation  in 
quick  time  for  Central  America.  We  read  of  a  time  when  '  a 
nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day. '  I  think  it  may  be  done  in  some 
such  way  as  this.  By  this  method  of  emigration  the  pioneer 
does  not  go  into  the  wilderness 

"  'Alone,  unfriended,  melancholy,  slow, 

Dragging  at  each  remove  a  length'ning  chain,' 

stealing  away  from  the  institutions  of  religion  and  education, 
himself  and  family;  but  Christianity  herself  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  the  pioneer;  and  not  Christianity  alone,  but  the  offspring 
of  Christianity,  an  awakened  intelligence,  and  all  the  inventions 
of  which  she  is  the  mother;  creating  all  the  differences  between 
an  advanced  and  enlightened  community  and  one  in  degrada- 
tion and  ignorance.  Sir,  in  years  gone  by  our  emigration  has 
ever  tended  towards  barbarism;  but  now,  by  this  method,  it  is 
tending  to  a  higher  civilization  than  we  have  ever  witnessed. 
Why,  sir,  by  this  plan  a  new  community  starts  on  as  high  a 
plane  as  the  old  one  had  ever  arrived  at;  and  leaving  behind  the 
dead  and  decayed  branches  which  encumbered  the  old,  with  the 
vigorous  energies  of  youth  it  presses  on  and  ascends.  Sir,  such 
a  State  will  be  the  State  of  Kansas,  eclipsing  in  its  progress  all 
the  other  States  of  this  nation,  because  it  was  colonized  in  this 
way.  The  people,  in  this  way,  have  not  to  serve  half  a  century 
of  probation  in  semi-barbarism.  They  begin  with  schools  and 
churches,  and  you  will  see  what  the  effect  is  upon  communities 
that  are  so  established. 

"But  I  will  speak  now  of  that  which  constitutes  the  peculiar 
strength  of  emigration  of  this  kind ;  and  that  is  the  profit  of  tlie 
thing.  I  have  shown  you  how  efficient  it  is,  and  I  will  now  show 
you  how  the  method  works,  to  some  extent.  It  is  profitable  for 
every  one  connected  with  it;  it  is  profitable  to  the  people  where 
the  colonies  go;  it  is  profitable  to  the  people  of  the  colonies;  and 
it  is  profitable  to  the  company,  which  is  the  guiding  star  and  the 
protecting  power  of  the  colonies.  It  does  good  everywhere.  It 
does  evil  nowhere. 

"  Sir,  you  cannot  resist  a  power  like  this.  A  good  man  often 
feels  regret  when  he  knows  that  by  promoting  a  good  cause  he 
is  at  the  same  time  sacrificing  his  own  means  of  doing  good,  and 


282  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

is  becoming  weaker  and  weaker  every  day.  It  is  a  great  draw- 
back upon  beneficent  enterprises,  even  upon  philanthropic  and 
Christian  enterprises,  that  the  men  who  sustain  them  are  lessen- 
ing their  own  means  of  doing  good  by  it.  Sir,  it  is  a  great  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  a  good  cause  can  only  be  sustained  by  the 
life-blood  of  its  friends.  But  when  a  man  can  do  a  magnani- 
mous act,  when  he  can  do  a  decidedly  good  thing,  and  at  the 
same  time  make  money  by  it,  all  his  faculties  are  in  harmony. 
[Laughter.]  You  do  not  need  any  great  argument  to  induce 
men  to  take  such  a  position,  if  you  can  only  induce  them  to  be- 
lieve that  such  is  the  effect.  "Well,  sir,  such  is  the  effect;  and 
now  let  us  apply  it  to  the  people  of  Central  America.  What 
reason  will  they  have  to  complain,  if  we  send  among  them  our 
colonies,  organized  in  this  way,  with  their  subsoil-ploughs,  their 
crow  -  bars,  their  hoes,  their  shovels,  and  their  garden  -  seeds  ? 
What  reason  will  they  have  to  complain  ?  Why,  the  fact  is 
that  unless  our  civilization  is  superior  to  theirs,  the  effort  would, 
in  the  beginning,  be  a  failure;  it  never  can  make  one  inch,  of 
progress.  Then,  sir,  if  we  succeed  at  all,  we  succeed  in  plant- 
ing a  civilization  there  which  is  superior  to  theirs ;  we  plant  that 
or  none.  It  is  impossible  for  an  inferior  civilization  to  supplant 
a  superior  civilization  except  by  violence,  and  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  do  it  in  that  way. 

"Well,  sir,  if  we  give  them  a  better  civilization,  the  tendency 
of  that  better  civilization  is  to  increase  the  value  of  real  estate; 
for  the  value  of  property,  the  value  of  real  estate,  depends  upon 
the  character  of  the  men  who  live  upon  the  land,  as  well  as  upon 
the  number  of  men  who  live  upon  it.  Now,  sir,  we  either  make 
an  absolute  failure  in  this  thing,  and  do  not  trouble  them  at  all, 
or  we  give  them  a  better  civilization,  and,  in  addition  to  that,  we 
give  them  wealth. 

"Thus,  sir,  with  bands  of  steel  we  bind  the  people  of  Central 
America  to  us  and  to  our  interests,  by  going  among  them  in  this 
way;  and  they  cannot  have  reason  to  complain,  nor  will  they 
complain.  If  we  had  approached  them  in  this  way  two  years 
ago,  without  this  miserable,  meddlesome  method,  induced  and 
warranted,  or  supposed  to  be  warranted,  by  the  neutrality  laws, 
we  should  have  filled  Central  America  to  overflowing  by  this 
time,  and  should  have  had  with  us  the  blessings  of  every  native 
citizen  in  that  portion  of  country. 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  283 

"  Now,  sir,  if  such  is  the  way,  if  such  is  the  power,  if  such  is 
the  effect  of  this  method  to  the  emigrants,  and  to  the  people 
among  whom  they  settle,  why  should  we  not  now  adopt  it  in 
reference  to  Central  America?  And  what  is  the  method?  "Why, 
it  is  as  plain  and  simple  as  it  can  be.  It  is  just  to  form  a  mon- 
eyed corporation  which  shall  have  two  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars capital;  which  shall  then  obtain  and  spread  information 
through  the  country  by  publications  indicating  what  are  the 
natural  resources  of  Central  America,  and  the  inducements  to 
emigrate  thither;  showing  how  it  is  situated  in  relation  to  com- 
merce, and  how,  of  necessity,  there  must  speedily  be  built  upon 
that  soil  a  flourishing  commonwealth.  Then  you  have  to  apply 
a  portion  of  these  means  to  buying  land  and  to  sending  out 
steam-engines,  and  to  building  some  hotels  to  accommodate  the 
people  who  go  there,  and  also  some  receiving-houses  for  the  emi- 
grants. Establish  there,  and  encourage  there  the  establishment 
of  the  mechanic  arts,  and  I  tell  you  that  every  steam-engine  you 
send  there  will  be  the  seat  of  a  flourishing  town:  every  one  will 
be  an  argument  for  people  to  go  there;  for  they  talk  louder  than 
individuals  a  thousand  times,  and  they  are  more  convincing  a 
thousand  times,  especially  to  an  ignorant  and  degraded  people, 
than  anything  men  can  say,  because  the  argument  is  addressed 
to  the  senses;  it  makes  them  feel  comfortable;  it  gives  them 
good  clothes;  it  gives  them  money.  These  are  the  arguments  to 
address  to  an  ignorant  and  degraded  people,  and  not  cannon- 
balls,  or  rifle-balls,  nor  yet  mere  abstract  dogmas  about  liberty  or 
theology.  Then  let  this  company  be  organized  so  soon  as  you  fix 
these  neutrality  laws,  so  that  we  can  get  off  without  these  vexa- 
tious executive  interferences.  [Laughter.]  Then  we  shall  see 
how  the  thing  will  work  in  Central  America. 

"But,  sir,  I  expect  when  the  people  of  the  North  shall  hear 
that  I  am  taking  this  view  of  the  question,  that  the  timid  will  be 
intensely  terrified,  and  say  that  we  are  to  have  more  slave  States 
annexed  to  the  Union.  I  have  not  the  slightest  apprehension  of 
that  result.  It  may  be  said  that  Yankees,  when  they  get  down 
into  Central  America,  will,  if  the  climate  is  suited  for  it,  make 
use  of  slave  labor.  I  have  heard  that  argument  before;  and  it 
has  been  asserted  that  the  Yankees  who  go  into  slave  States  often- 
times turn  slave-holders,  and  outdo  the  Southern  men  themselves. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  they  outdo  them,  if  they  do  anything  in 


284  THE  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

that  line  at  all.  [Laughter.]  The  Yankee  has  never  become  a 
slave-holder  unless  he  has  been  forced  to  it  by  the  social  relations 
of  the  slave  State  where  he  lived;  and  the  Yankee  who  has  be- 
come a  slave-holder  has,  every  day  of  his  life  thereafter,  felt  in 
his  very  bones  the  bad  economy  of  the  system.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise.  Talk  about  our  Yankees  who  go  to  Central  America 
becoming  slave-holders!  Why,  sir,  we  can  buy  a  negro  power 
in  a  steam-engine  for  ten  dollars  [laughter],  and  we  can  clothe 
and  feed  that  power  for  one  year  for  five  dollars  [renewed  laugh- 
ter]; and  are  we  the  men  to  give  $1000  for  an  African  slave,  and 
$150  a  year  to  feed  and  clothe  him? 

"No,  sir.  Setting  aside  the  arguments  about  sentimentality 
and  about  philanthropy  on  this  question,  setting  aside  all  poetry 
and  fiction,  he  comes  right  down  to  the  practical  question — is  it 
profitable?  The  Yankee  replies, 'Not  at  all.'  Then  there  is  no 
danger  of  men  who  go  from  Boston  to  Central  America  ever 
owning  slaves,  unless  they  are  compelled  to  by  their  social  rela- 
tions there.  If  a  man  goes  from  Boston  into  Louisiana,  and  no- 
body will  speak  to  him  unless  he  has  a  slave,  nobody  will  invite 
him  to  a  social  entertainment  unless  he  owns  a  negro;  and  if  he 
cannot  get  a  wife  unless  he  has  a  negro,  then,  sir,  very  likely  he 
may  make  up  his  mind  to  own  a  negro.  [Laughter.]  But  I  tell 
you  that  he  will  repent  of  it  every  day  while  he  has  him.  He 
cannot  whistle  'Yankee  Doodle'  with  the  same  relish  as  before. 
He  cannot  whittle  in  the  same  free  and  easy  manner.  He  used 
to  cut  with  the  grain,  with  the  knife-edge  from  him;  now  he 
cuts  across  the  grain  with  the  knife-edge  towards  him.  The 
doleful  fact  that  he  owns  a  negro  is  a  tax  upon  every  pulsation 
of  his  heart.  Poor  man!  There  is  no  inducement  for  the  Yan- 
kees to  spread  slavery  in  Central  America,  and  there  is  no  power 
in  any  other  part  of  the  country  to  do  it.  Therefore,  most  fear- 
lessly do  I  advocate  the  Americanizing  of  Central  America. 
We  must  have  some  outlet  for  our  overwhelming  population. 
Necessity  knows  no  law;  and  if  we  cannot  have  Central  America 
we  must  have  the  Indian  Territory;  we  must  have  something; 
we  are  not  exhausted  in  our  power  of  emigration;  we  are  worse 
off  than  we  were  before  the  opening  of  Kansas.  Not  one-half  of 
our  natural  increase  has  been  exhausted  in  colonizing  that  Terri- 
tory, and  furnishing  people  for  Oregon  and  Washington.  We 
might,  as  I  told  you,  make  eight  States  a  year,  if  we  only  used 


CENTRAL  AMERICA.  285 

our  forces  economically;  and  we  will  use  them  economically  by 
establishing,  not  for  the  present  time  only,  but  for  all  coming 
time,  this  system  of  organized  emigration.  Just  as  fast  as  this 
has  become  understood  in  the  country — just  as  far  as  it  is  known 
to  the  people — not  a  single  man  who  has  any  sense  will  emigrate 
in  any  other  way  than  by  colonies.  Just  look  at  the  difference 
between  men  going  in  a  colony  and  going  alone.  Suppose  a 
man  goes  to  Central  America,  and  settles  there  alone;  what  is 
his  influence  upon  real  estate  by  settling  there  alone?  There  is 
no  appreciable  difference  from  what  it  was  before;  but  if  he  goes 
there  with  five  hundred  men  from  the  city  of  Boston  to  establish 
a  town,  by  that  very  act  he  has  made  himself  wealthy.  I  can 
point  to  numerous  examples  of  the  kind.  Hence  this  making 
money  by  organized  emigration  is  not  going  to  be  speedily  relin- 
quished. Depend  upon  it  that  we  have  only  begun  to  use  it,  and 
that  we  have  not  used  it  with  the  efficiency  with  which  it  will  be 
used  in  a  year  to  come. 

"Now,  sir,  for  these  reasons  I  hope  that  the  committee  to 
which  this  question  shall  be  referred  will  so  modify  and  eluci- 
date the  neutrality  laws  that  we  shall  not  hereafter  be  subjected 
to  this  executive  interference.  And,  in  accordance  with  the 
views  I  have  expressed,  I  now  offer  the  following  amendment: 

"  '  And,  also,  that  said  committee  report,  so  far  as  they  may  be 
able,  the  present  social  and  political  condition  of  the  people  of 
Nicaragua,  and  whether  they  invite  colonies  from  the  United 
States  to  settle  among  them;  and,  also,  whether  the  soil,  climate, 
and  other  natural  advantages  of  that  country  are  such  as  to  en- 
courage emigration  thither  from  the  Northern  States  of  this  con- 
federacy.' 

"Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  will  state  briefly  my  reasons  for  sub- 
mitting that  amendment.  The  gentleman  from  Mississippi  [Mr. 
Quitman]  referred  to  the  social  and  political  condition  of  the 
people  of  Central  America  as  a  proper  basis,  I  think  he  said,  fur 
our  action.  Therefore,  with  open  arms,  do  we  welcome  that 
gentleman  and  his  associates  to  our  noble  brotherhood  of  mis- 
sionary political  regenerators.  For  myself,  I  am  willing  to  take 
the  gentleman's  words  about  the  necessity  of  something  being 
done  to  aid  these  people;  but,  in  grave  matters  of  legislation  like 
this,  the  committee  having  the  subject  in  charge  should  first  fully 
investigate  in  reference  to  the  matter  suggested  by  my  amendment. 


286  TUB  KANSAS  CRUSADE. 

"  I  do  not  intend  any  offensive  sectionalism  by  using  the  word 
Northern  ;  that  the  committee  should  inquire  whether  the  natu- 
ral advantages  of  soil  and  climate  of  Central  America  were  such 
as  to  invite  emigration  thither  from  the  Northern  States.  I  so 
phrased  the  amendment  because,  as  I  have  shown  you,  the 
Northern  States  are  the  only  ones  which  can  furnish  emigration 
that  would  be  of  any  consequence  to  Central  America.  We 
would  be  glad  to  receive  whatever  help  the  States  on  the  Gulf 
could  give  us,  but  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  give  much  help  in 
this  work.  And  because  the  Northern  States  have  the  power  in 
this  matter,  and  because  the  Southern  States  have  not  the  power, 
I  have  used  the  words,  that  the  committee  shall  inquire  specially 
whether  the  climate  and  the  soil  are  such  as  to  encourage  emi- 
gration to  Central  America  from  the  Northern  States.  If,  how- 
ever, there  be  objection  to  it,  I  will  strike  out  the  word  '  North- 
ern,' and  leave  the  inquiry  to  be  general." 


IKDEX. 


Abolition,  fanatics  of  New  England,  the,  156. 

Abolitionists,  Garrison,  editorial  on,  in  the  Glasgow  Christian  News, 

1852,  153  ;  extreme  views  of  the,  87-89. 
Abolitionists,  prominent,  liberality  of  the,  204,  205. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  extracts  from  the  diary  of,  148 ;  remarks  of,  80. 
Anthony,  D.  R.,  tireless  energy  of,  in  making  Kansas  free,  70. 
Antislavery  vote,  increase  of  the,  in  1855  and  1856,  20,  250,  251. 
Atchison,  Senator,  strong  language  used  by,  187. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  at  the  meeting  in  the  vestry  of  Plymouth 
Church,  205;  he  asks  Mr.  Thayer  to  speak  on  the  Kansas  ques- 
tion, 205. 

Benton,  Thomas  II.,  extract  from  his  review  of  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision, 9. 

"Black  Power,"  the,  243. 

Bleeding  Kansas'  Days,  231,232. 

Blunt,  George  W.,  a  meeting  at  the  house  of,  to  raise  money  for  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  202. 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  the,  extract  from  an  editorial  of,  214-216. 

Boston  Evening  Traveller,  extract  from  the,  on  the  Garrisonian  party, 
151 ;  report  of  the  N.  E.  A.  A.  S.  Convention  in  Boston,  161, 162. 

Boston  Herald,  editorials  in  the,  233,  234. 

Boutwell,  George  S.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  on  the  non-extension 
of  slavery,  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  December  16,  1861,  241. 

Bowles,  Samuel,  editorial  of,  in  the  Springfield  Republican,  xvi ;  remark 
of,  in  relation  to  the  Abolitionists,  98. 

Brown,  G.  W.,  establishes  the  Herald  of  Freedom,  107. 

Brown,  John,  a  historical  view  of,  197;  a  pupil  of  the  Garrisonites, 
195  ;  peculiar  views  of,  192. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  energy  and  eloquence  of,  in  the  movement  of 
organized  emigration,  171;  rapid  decline  in  Missouri  bonds  caused 
by  editorials  of,  208. 

Bryant  aud  Gay's  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  extract  from,  54. 


288  INDEX. 

Buslmell,  Rev.  Dr.  Horace,  extracts  from  a  sermon  preached  in  Hart- 
ford, in  1839,  84-86. 

Callioun,  John  C.,  his  efforts  in  the  interests  of  slave  property,  6. 

Cambridge  Chronicle,  editorial  in  the,  223,  225. 

CMS.-J,  Lewis,  personal  hostility  of  Martin  Van  Buren  to,  19. 

Channing,  Win.  E.,  criticisms  of,  in  relation  to  the  course  pursued  by 
Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison,  86,  87 ;  letter  of,  to  Daniel  Webster,  77,  78. 

Charity  Plan,  the,  69. 

Charles  B.  Lines  Colony,  formation  of  the,  55. 

Charleston  Mercury,  extracts  from  the,  advocating  the  establishing  of 
slavery  in  Kansas,  237,  240. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  in  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, May  25,  1854,  13. 

Christian  Examiner,  the,  extract  from,  on  the  notable  migrations  of 
history,  66-68. 

Christian  Register,  the,  extracts  from,  65, 183. 

Circular  of  invitation,  a,  for  a  meeting  at  the  chapel  of  the  University 
of  New  York,  in  relation  to  the  settlement  of  Kansas,  209. 

Clean  Sweep,  a,  128. 

Clergy,  Appeal  of  the,  130-133. 

Clergymen,  letters  of,  133-135. 

Crusade  of  Freedom,  the,  work  of,  221. 

Curtis,  George  Ticknor,  extract  from  his  "  Life  of  Webster,"  145. 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  149. 

De  Bow's  Review,  appeal  of,  to  the  South  in  favor  of  establishing 
slavery  in  Kansas,  238,  239 ;  extract  from,  approving  of  the  plan 
and  operations  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  122. 

Devens,  Gen.  Charles,  address  of,  before  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
Association,  June  17,  1887,  228,  229. 

Disunionists  of  the  Xorth,  the,  230;  wonderful  affection  of  the,  for 
cranks  and  monomaniacs,  194. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  his  report  to  the  Senate,  March  12,  1856,  ex- 
cusing the  acts  of  the  border  ruffians,  236,  237. 

Editorials,  patriotic,  153-160. 

Edwards,  Isaac  M.,  evidence  of,  before  the  Howard  Congressional  Com- 
mittee, 235. 

Eldridge,  S.  W.,  colonies  put  in  charge  of,  214. 

Eliot,  Samuel,  extract  from  his  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  81,  82. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  extract  from  his  "Miscellanies,"  239;  re- 
marks of,  184. 


INDEX.  %  289 

Emigrant  Aid  Company,  charter  for  an,  procured  from  the  Legislature 
of  Connecticut,  164 ;  also  one  granted  by  the  Massachusetts  Legis- 
lature, 15 ;  disparagement  of  the  work  of  the,  by  Nicolay  and  Hay, 
in  their  Life  of  Lincoln,  226. 

Emigration,  difficulties  of,  63. 

Eminent  helpers,  a  number  of,  223. 

"  Eternal  Whine,"  the,  114. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  remarks  of,  at  the  house  of  George  W.  Blunt, 
203,  204. 

Free  labor,  the  irresistible  power  of,  92. 

Free-soil  party,  the,  origin  of,  19 ;  its  dissolution  advocated,  7 ;  weak- 
ness of,  7. 
Futile  Abolition  effort,  a  quarter  of  a  century  of,  162. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  an  "  immediativist,"  137;  fierce  hostility 
against,  78  ;  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  the  antislavery  struggle,  95 ; 
undoing  the  work  of  Benjamin  Lundy,  78,  79 ;  vituperative  f  ulmi- 
nations  of,  79. 

Geary,  Governor,  goes  to  Kansas,  218. 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, May  16,  1854,  11. 

Good  Garrisouiau,  how  to  make  a,  163. 

Greeley,  Horace,  anecdote  of,  42,  43 ;  conceding  Kansas  to  slavery, 
181;  editorial  sanctum  of,  37;  extract  from  "The  Great  American 
Conflict,"  160;  extracts  from  editorials  of,  in  the  New  York  Trib- 
une, 14,  15,  48-51;  his  remarkable  gift,  38;  his  weak  point,  181; 
invaluable  aid  of,  in  the  early  part  of  the  Kansas  trouble,  182;  on 
Wendell  Phillips's  "  Holier  than  thou,"  150. 

Green,  Senator,  remarks  of,  in  the  Senate,  236. 

Guthrie,  Rev.  John,  letter  of,  to  George  Thompson,  152. 

Hale,  Edward  E.,  chosen  a  director  in  the  New  England  Emigrant  Aid 
Company,  xii;  his  admiration  of  Eli  Thayer,  x;  his  invaluable 
book,  "  Kansas  and  Nebraska,"  178  ;  his  pamphlet,  called  "How  to 
Conquer  Texas  before  Texas  Conquers  Us,"  x ;  proud  of  the  part 
he  took  in  the  settlement  of  Texas,  ix;  untiring  energy  of,  in  se- 
curing freedom  to  Kansas,  125. 

Hale,  John  P.,  advocates  the  disbanding  of  the  Free-soil  party  and  the 
fusing  with  the  Whigs,  7. 

Hamlin,  Hannibal,  address  of,  before  the  Veteran  Club,  February  18, 
1888,  8. 

Hidden,  Rev.  E.  N.,  letter  of,  135. 

13 


290  INDEX. 

Higginson,  Rev.  T.  W.,  conference  of,  with  James  H.  Lane,  117;  ex- 
tract from  a  sermon  of,  101. 

Hillard,  George  S.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  5. 

Historic  Truth,  the  statue  of,  249. 

Ilyatt,  Thaddeus,  election  of,  as  president  of  the  National  Kansas  Com- 
mittee, 217;  courage  and  fidelity  of,  217. 

"  Immediativist,"  Mr.  Garrison  an,  137. 
Iowa,  our  emigrants  in,  214. 

Jackson,  Rev.  W.  C.,  letter  of,  to  Rev.  Dr.  Clark,  135. 
James,  Rev.  Horace,  letter  of,  to  Rev.  Dr.  Clark,  133,  134. 

Kansas,  freedom  of,  secure,  211 ;  frothy  interlopers  in,  201 ;  the  fight 

in,  the  forerunner  of  the  Republican  party,  170. 
Kansas  Pioneer,  the,  extract  from,  64,  65. 

Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  the,  passage  of,98;  signed  by  President  Pierce,  98. 
King,  President,  of  Columbia  College,  presides  at  a  meeting  of  the 

friends  of  "The  Plan  of  Freedom  "in  the  Astor  House,  May  31, 

1854,  51. 

Lane,  James  H.,  extreme  views  of,  in  regard  to  the  course  to  be  pur- 
sued in  Kansas,  117. 

Lawrence,  Amos  A.,  episode  pertaining  to,  189;  extract  from  the 
diary  of,  116;  his  confidence  in  men  abused,  190;  letter  of,  to  the 
Old  Settlers'  Meeting  in  Bismarck  Grove,  Lawrence,  Kansas,  Sep- 
tember, 1877,  xvii;  remarks  of,  before  the  Massachusetts  Histor- 
ical Society,  191-193 ;  styles  himself  a  "  Hunker  Whig,"  190. 

Lawrence,  City  of,  founded  by  Charles  H.  Branscomb,  71. 

Liberator,  the,  established,  81;  extracts  from  editorials  in,  104-106, 
108, 109, 127. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  extract  from  speech  of,  at  Cooper  Institute,  193; 
folly  to  attribute  secession  to,  242. 

Lundy,Benj.,effective  antislavery  work  of, 78 ;  establishes  a  paper  called 
the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  75 ;  his  "Appeal  to  Philan- 
thropists," 75  ;  his  success  in  organizing  antislavery  societies,  75. 

Lynchburg  Republican,  the,  extract  from,  64. 

Maine,  meetings  in,  188. 

M;in-stealers,  no  union  with,  102. 

Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  charter  of  the,  signed  by  the 
Governor,  27 ;  committee  appointed  to  report  a  plan  of  organiza- 
tion, 27 ;  extract  from  the  report,  27,  29. 


INDEX.  291 

May,  Samuel,  Jr.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  116. 

Meeting  in  Faneuil  Hull  to  protest  against  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 

Compromise,  February  23,  1854,  4. 
Meetings,  Chapman  Hall,  30. 
Midas,  the  modern,  60. 
Missouri  Compromise,  the,  general  alarm  in  anticipation  of  the  repeal 

of,  23  ;  protest  against  the  passage  of,  by  New  England  clergymen, 

123. 

Mobile  Register,  the,  extract  from,  240. 
Morley,  Rev.  S.  B.,  letter  of,  to  Rev.  Dr.  Clark,  134. 

National  Kansas  Committee,  the,  organized,  217. 

Nebraska  Bill,  protest  against  the  passage  of,  124. 

New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Company,  officers  of,  63. 

New  England,  first  legislative  assembly  of  white  men  in,  a  law  of  the, 

in  relation  to  slavery,  74. 

New  England  Home  Journal,  editorial  in,  231,  232. 
New  York  Evening  Post,  extracts  from  editorials  in,  207,  208,  232,  233. 
New  York  Herald,  extraet  from  the,  240. 
New  York  Kansas  Aid  Committee  of  Albany,  New  York,  the  energy 

and  activity  of,  172. 

New  York  Observer,  extract  from  the,  128. 

New  York  Sun,  editorial  in  the,  230 ;  editorial  comments  of,  197. 
New  York  Tribune,  extract  from  an   editorial  in,  226,  227 ;   extracts 

from  the,  150,  177. 

Olmsted,  Frederic  Law,  his  contribution  of  a  howitzer  to  the  free- 
State  men  in  Kansas,  210. 
Organized  emigration,  scheme  of,  24. 

Parker,  Theodore,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  in  the  Hall  of  the  State- 
house,  Boston,  xiv,  xv ;  extracts  from  the  speeches  of,  9 ;  letters 
of,  to  Eli  Thayer,  xv,  xvi. 

Patriotic  meetings  in  the  Northern  States  protesting  against  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  3. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  extracts  from  speeches  of,  116,  117,  144. 

Pillsbury,  Parker,  offers  a  resolution  in  the  Worcester  County  South 
Division  A.  S.  Society  in  relation  to  two  speeches  of  Charles  Sum- 
ner,  140,  141  ;  the  blasphemer,  155. 

Pinckney,  C.  C.,  extract  from  his  address  before  the  South  Carolina 
Agricultural  Society,  at  Charleston,  1829,  256,  257. 

Pioneers,  letters  of  the,  169. 

Plan  of  Freedom,  the  name  of,  suggested  by  Horace  Greeley,  47. 


292  INDEX. 

Plymouth  Church,  meeting  in  the  vestry  of,  205. 
Poe,  Edgar  A.,  quotation  from,  219. 

Pomeroy,  Samuel  C.,  a  member  of  the  second  colony,  72 ;  subsequent- 
ly a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  72. 

Quantrell  raid,  the,  195. 
Quirk  Walker  case,  the,  74. 

Race  problem,  the,  112. 

Randolph,  John,  remarks  on  the  floor  of  Congress  in  relation  to  sla- 
very, 260. 

Reeder,  Governor,  escape  of,  from  Kansas,  212;  requested  to  preside 
at  the  convention  of  delegates  at  Cleveland,  212. 

Reminiscences,  Mr.  Merrifield's,  extract  from,  175,  176. 

Richmond  South,  extract  from  the,  240. 

Robinson,  Charles,  and  others,  arrested  for  treason,  210 ;  liberated, 
211;  Mrs.  Sara  T.  L.,  her  great  influence  for  the  cause  of  freedom 
in  Kansas,  35. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  extracts  from  his  "  Life  of  Benton,"  83,  146, 
148. 

"  Saw-mills  and  liberty,"  zii. 

Schouler's  History,  extracts  from,  82,  93. 

Seward,  William  H.,  concedes  Kansas  and  the  other  Territories  to 
slavery,  16;  extracts  from  speeches  of,  12,  243. 

Slave  power,  the,  in  1854,  1. 

Slave  States,  Northern  civilization  superior  to  that  of  the,  61 ;  the 
prospective  power  of,  18. 

Slavery,  degrading  influence  of,  31. 

Slavery  extension,  the  question  of,  debated  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Douglas,  244. 

Slavery,  restriction  of,  simply  a  "delusion,  2 ;  the  institution  of,  regard- 
ed as  a  calamity  both  North  and  South,  220. 

Smith,  Gerrit,  at  the  National  Convention,  Buffalo,  214  ;  motion  of,  to 
appoint  Eli  Thayer  a  committee  to  take  charge  of  the  systematic 
organization  of  all  the  States  friendly  to  Kansas,  215. 

South,  the,  resurrection  of,  113. 

Spinner,  Francis  E.,  extract  from  a  letter  of,  229. 

Spooner,  W.  B.,  extract  from  a  letter  of,  to  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  xvii. 

Spring,  Professor,  extract  from  his  "Kansas,"  182,  183  ;  extracts  from 
his  History,  32,  52. 

Standish,  Miles,  motto  of,  222. 


INDEX.  293 

Stearns,  C.,  extracts  from  letters  of,  103,  104. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  remark  of,  in  relation  to  John  Brown,  194. 

Stringfellow,  John  H.,  evidence  of,  before  the  Howard  Congressional 
Committee,  234,  235. 

Stimner,  Charles,  extracts  from  speeches  of,  10,  16,  118, 121 ;  his  opin- 
ion of  Eli  Thayer's  efforts  in  behalf  of  Kansas,  xviii. 

Systematic  relief  of  Kansas,  the,  214. 

Tliayer,  Eli,  a  talk  with  Dr.  Eliphalet  Nott,  178 ;  a  talk  with  Horace 
Greeley  in  relation  to  organized  emigration,  37-42 ;  address  of,  at  the 
house  of  George  W.  Blunt,  203 ;  address  of,  in  the  vestry  of  Plym- 
outh Church,  206 ;  address  of,  in  the  Rev.  Mr.  Frothingham's  church, 
209;  extract  from  a  letter  of,  to  the  New  York  Sun,  195,  197;  ex- 
tract from  a  letter  of,  to  the  Boston  Herald,  199-201 ;  extract  from 
a  speech  of,  in  the  City  Hall,  Worcester,  25 ;  extract  from  a  speech 
of,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  24, 1859,  244-248 ;  first 
became  personally  acquainted  with  Horace  Greeley,  36  ;  his  interview 
with  George  W.  Blunt  and  Simeon  Draper,  202 ;  letters  of,  to  William 
Barnes,  173-175,  213  ;  makes  the  acquaintance  of  Governor  Morrill, 
186  ;  opposition  to,  in  Vermont,  91;  remarks  before  the  nominating 
convention  at  Worcester,  219;  reward  offered  for,  by  the  border 
ruffians  of  Missouri,  184,  185;  speech  of,  on  Central  America, 
delivered  January  7,  1858,  272;  speech  of,  on  the  "Suicide  of 
Slavery,"  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  25, 
1858,253. 

Townsend,  George  Alfred,  letter  of,  in  relation  to  Garrison  and  Lundy, 
78. 

"  Union  Humane  Society,"  the,  75. 

United  States,  Constitution  of  the,  burned  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison 

at  South  Framingham,  Massachusetts,  138. 
Upham,  Professor  Thomas  C.,  letter  of,  to  T.  P.  Blanchard,  134. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  Free-soil  party  created  by,  in  1848,  7  ;  his  hostil- 
ity to  Lewis  Cass,  19. 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  May  25,  1854,  12. 

Walker,  Rev.  Charles,  letter  of,  to  the  Committee  of  the  New  England 
Emigrant  Aid  Company,  134. 

Walker,  William,  "  filibuster,"  eulogy  of,  by  Mr.  Maynard,  272 ;  sur- 
render of,  without  a  protest,  272. 

Waters,  Asa  H.,  letter  of,  142,  143. 


294  INDEX. 

Weed,  Thurlow,  editorial  of,  in  the  Albany  Evening  Journal,  166  ;  ex- 
tracts from  his  "Memoirs,"  149. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  his  "  Emigrants'  Song  "  quoted,  69. 

Williams,  J.  M.  S.,  a  deserved  compliment  paid  to,  225. 

Wilson,  Henry,  extract  from  his  History,  72,  73  ;  remark  of,  in  relation 
to  John  Brown,  194. 

Winthrop,  Robert  C.,  extract  from  a  speech  of,  5. 

Worcester  Spy,  editorial  of,  in  answer  to  Nicolay  and  Hay,  227,  228. 

Young  Men  of  Vermont,  Rev.  Mr.  Hale's  advice  to  the,  126,  127. 


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(1816-1875).  With  Special  Reference  to  Germany.  By  WILL- 
IAM MULLER.  Translated,  with  an  Appendix  covering  the 
Period  from  1876  to  1881,  by  the  Rev.  JOHN  P.  PETERS,  Ph.D. 
12mo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 


4  Valuable  JTorfa  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries. 

TREVELYAN'S  LIFE  OF  MACAULAY.  The  Life  and  Let- 
ters  of  Lord  Macaulay.  By  his  Nephew,  G.  OTTO  TREVELYAN, 
M.P.  With  Portrait  on  Steel.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut 
Edges  nnd  Gilt  Tops,  $5  00  ;  Sheep,  $6  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $9  50. 
Popular  Edition,  2  vols.  in  one,  12mo,  Cloth,  §i  75. 

TREVELYAN'S  LIFE  OF  FOX.  The  Early  History  of  Charles 
James  Fox.  By  GEORGE  OTTO  TBEVELYAN.  8vo,  Cloth,  Un- 
cut Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,  $2  50 ;  Half  Calf,  $4  75. 

WRITINGS  AND  SPEECHES  OF  SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN. 
Edited  by  JOHN  BIGELOW.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  Gilt  Tops  and 
Uncut  Edges,  $6  00  per  set. 

GENERAL  DIX'S  MEMOIRS.  Memoirs  of  John  Adams  Dix. 
Compiled  by  his  Son,  MOKGAN  Dix.  With  Five  Steel-plate 
Portraits.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  Gilt  Tops  and  Uncut  Edges, 
$5  00. 

HUNT'S  MEMOIR  OF  MRS.  LIVINGSTON.  A  Memoir  of 
Mrs.  Edward  Livingston.  With  Letters  hitherto  Unpublished. 
By  LOUISE  LIVINGSTON  HUNT.  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  25. 

GEORGE  ELIOT'S  LIFE.  George  Eliot's  Life,  Related  in  her 
Letters  and  Journals.  Arranged  snd  Edited  by  her  Hus- 
band, J.  W.  CROSS.  Portraits  and  Illustrations.  In  Three 
Volumes.  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  75.  New  Edition,  with  Fresh  Mat- 
ter. (Uniform  with  "Harper's  Library  Edition"  of  George 
Eliot's  Works.) 

PEARS'S  FALL  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  The  Fall  of  Con- 
stantinople. Being  the  Story  of  the  Fourth  Crusade.  By 
EDWIN  PEAKS,  LL.B.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

RANKE'S  UNIVERSAL  HISTORY.  The  Oldest  Historical 
Group  of  Nations  and  the  Greeks.  By  LEOPOLD  VON  R.YSKK. 
Edited  by  G.  W.  PHOTHERO,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  King's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge.  Vol.  I.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

LIFE  AND  TIMES   OF  THE  REV.  SYDNEY  SMITH.     A 

Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Times  of  the  Rev.  Sydney  Smith. 
Based  on  Family  Documents  and  the  Recollections  of  Personal 
Friends.  By  STUART  J.  REID.  With  Steel-plate  Portrait  and 
Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 


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STANLEY'S  THROUGH  THE  DARK  CONTINENT.  Through 
the  Dark  Continent ;  or,  The  Sources  of  the  Nile,  Around  the 
Great  Lakes  of  Equatorial  Africa,  and  Down  the  Livingstone 
River  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  119  Illustrations  and  10  Maps. 
By  H.  M.  STANLEY.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $10  00;  Sheep, 
$12  00;  Half  Morocco,  $15  00. 

STANLEY'S  CONGO.  The  Congo  and  the  Founding  of  its 
Free  State,  a  Story  of  Work  and  Exploration.  With  over  One 
Hundred  Full-page  and  smaller  Illustrations.  Two  Large  Maps, 
and  several  smaller  ones.  By  H.  M.  STANLEY.  2  vols.,  8vo, 
Cloth,  $10  00;  Sheep,  $12  00;  Half  Morocco,  $15  00. 

GREEN'S  ENGLISH  PEOPLE.  History  of  the  English  Peo- 
ple. By  JOHN  RICHARD  GREEN,  M.A.  With  Maps.  4  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $10  00;  Sheep,  $12  00;  Half  Calf,  $19  00. 

GREEN'S  MAKING  OF  ENGLAND.  The  Making  of  Eng- 
land. By  JOHN  RICHARD  GREEV.  With  Maps.  8vo,  Cloth, 
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land. By  JOHN  RICHARD  GREEN.  With  Maps.  8vo,  Cloth, 
$2  50;  Sheep,  $3  00;  Half  Calf,  $3  75. 

BAKER'S  ISMAILIA  :  a  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  to  Central 
Africa  for  the  Suppression  of  the  Slave-trade,  organized  by  Is- 
mail, Khedive  of  Egypt.  By  Sir  SAMUEL  W.  BAKER.  With 
Maps,  Portraits,  and  Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00;  Half 
Calf,  $7  25. 

ENGLISH  MEN  OF  LETTERS.     Edited  by  JOHN  MOBLEY. 
The  following  volumes  are  now  ready.     Others  will  follow : 

JOHNSON.  By  L.  Stephen. — GIBBON.  By  J.  C.  Morison.—  SCOTT.  By  R.  H. 
Hutton. — SHELLEY.  By  J.  A.  Symonds.— GOLDSMITH.  By  W.  Black. — HCME. 
By  Professor  Huxley. — DEFOE.  By  W.  Minto. — BCRSS.  By  Principal  Shairp. 
— SPENSER.  By  R.  W.  Church.— THACKERAY.  By  A.  Trollope. — BURKE.  By 
J.  Morley.— MILTOX.  By  M.  Pattison. — SOCTHEY.  By  E.  Dowden. — CHAUCER. 
By  A.  \V.  Ward.— BCNYAN.  By  J.  A.  Froude.— COWPER.  By  G.  Smith.— 
POPE.  By  L.  Stephen. — BYROX.  By  J.  Nichols. — LOCKE.  By  T.  Fowler. — 
WORDSWORTH.  By  F.  W.  H.  Myers.— HAWTHORNE.  By  Henry  James,  Jr. — 
DRYDEX.  By  G.  Saintsbury.—  LANDOR.  By  S.  Colvin. — DE  QUINCBY.  By  D. 
Masson. — LAMB.  By  A.  Ainger. — BEXTLEY.  By  R.  C.  Jebb. — DICKENS.  By 
A.  W.  Ward.— GRAY.  By  E.  W.  Gosse.— SWIFT.  By  L.  Stephen.— STERNE.  By 
H.  D.  Traill. — MACAULAY.  By  J.  C.  Morison. — FIELDING.  By  A.  Dobson. — 
SHRRIDAX.  By  Mrs.  Oliphant. — ADDISON.  By  W.  J.  Courthope. — BACON.  By 
K.  W.  Church.— COLERIDGE.  By  H  D.  Traill.— SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY.  By  J.  A. 
Symonds.— KEATS.  By  S.  Colvin.  12mo,  Cloth,  75  cents  per  volume. 

POPULAR  EDITION.     36  volumes  in  12,  $12  00. 


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COLERIDGE'S  WORKS.  The  Complete  Works  of  Samuel  Tay- 
lor Coleridge.  With  an  Introductory  Essay  upon  his  Philosoph- 
ical and  Theological  Opinions.  Edited  by  Professor  W.  G.  T. 
SHEDD.  With  Steel  Portrait,  and  an  Index*  7  vols.,  12mo, 
Cloth,  $2  00  per  volume  ;  $12  00  per  set ;  Half  Calf,  $24  25. 

REBER'S  MEDIAEVAL  ART.  History  of  Mediaeval  Art.  By 
Dr.  FRANZ  VON  REBEE.  Translated  and  Augmented  by  Joseph 
Thacher  Clarke.  With  422  Illustrations,  and  a  Glossary  of 
Technical  Terms.  8vo,  Cloth,  £o  0:). 

REBER'S  HISTORY  OF  ANCIENT  ART.  History  of  Ancient 
Art.  By  Dr.  FRANZ  vox  REBER.  Revised  by  the  Author. 
Translated  and  Augmented  by  Joseph  Thacher  Clarke.  With 
310  Illustrations  and  a  Glossary  of  Technical  Terms.  8vo, 
Cloth,  $3  50. 

NEWCOMB'S  ASTRONOMY.  Popular  Astronomy.  By  SIMON 
NEWCOMB,  LL.D.  With  112  Engravings,  and  5  Maps  of  the 
Stars.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50  ;  School  Edition,  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  30. 

DAVIS'S  INTERNATIONAL  LAW.  Outlines  of  International 
Law,  with  an  Account  of  its  Origin  and  Sources,  and  of  its  His- 
torical Development.  By  GKO.  B.  DAVIS,  U.S.A.,  Assistant 
Professor  of  Law  at  the  United  States  Military  Academy.  Crown 
8vo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

CESNOLA'S  CYPRUS.  Cyprus :  its  Ancient  Cities,  Tombs,  and 
Temples.  A  Narrative  of  Researches  and  Excavations  during 
Ten  Years'  Residence  in  that  Island.  By  L.  P.  DI  CESNOLA. 
With  Portrait,  Maps,  and  400  Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  Extra, 
Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,  $7  50. 

TENNYSON'S  COMPLETE  POEMS.  The  Complete  Poetical 
Works  of  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson.  With  an  Introductory  Sketch 
by  Anne  Thackeray  Ritchie.  W'.th  Portraits  and  Illustrations. 
8vo,  Extra  Cloth,  Bevelled,  Gilt  Edges,  $2  50. 

LEA'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  INQUISITION.  History  of  the  In- 
quisition of  the  Middle  Ages.  By  HESBV  CHARLES  LEA.  Three 
Volumes.  8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt  Tops,  $3  00  per  vol. 

FLAMMARION'S  ATMOSPHERE.  Translated  from  the  French 
of  CAMII.LE  FLAMMAKION.  With  10  Chromo-Lithographs  and 
86  Wood-cuts.  8vo,  Cloth,  f  G  00;  Half  Calf,  $8  25. 


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